


The Witching Hour

by alyssalopezbor



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Demon!Kylo, Demons, F/M, Liberal use of Italics, Witch!Rey, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-11-04 18:12:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyssalopezbor/pseuds/alyssalopezbor
Summary: Amateur magic is absolutely a mistake, especially when you're stealing spells from books you can barely read.“Can you show me how to do that?” Rey asked, looking incredibly sheepish.“You need a teacher,” Kylo said too firmly. Rey’s eyes lit up and she nodded, absolutely thrilled.Shit.





	1. Witch

**Author's Note:**

> Wow my first work, please don't kill me😎  
> Updates are every week unless otherwise posted ❤

_**Today** _

  
Kylo blinked up at his surroundings, is that a fucking ceiling? _Am I in an A-Frame? I thought the Yosemite retreat wasn’t until winter solstice?_ He’s not where he had been when he went to sleep the previous night.

 

Light sprinkled in through sheer curtains and a bay window. The walls were painted pale blue, he was in a bedroom, sitting on the cement floor at the foot of the bed. Slowly, Kylo Ren stood, turning to face a young girl, who’s shoved up against the iron headframe shaking, clutching the blanket to her chest.

 

She’s young and her hazel eyes shine with fear and something hotter. Anger. Her hair cuts off at her shoulders, brown, wavy, and bluntly cut. It’s as rumpled as the sheets.

 

“It worked…” she managed to mutter, lowering the covers and leaning forward. Kylo cocked his head to the side like a dog. He says nothing and takes in the rest of his surroundings. The bedroom is small, cramped despite the lack of furniture. There’s only the bed and a beat-up looking wardrobe, like it had been picked up off the side of the street. His survey continued, skipping over the girl and to the floor.

 

He stood in a sigil, painted white, that was half obscured by the bed. Ren looked human, normal pale skin, laced with scars, a pair of black boxers kept his modesty intact. Not that demons had any modesty, least of all him.

 

_**Yesterday** _

 

Rey cursed as she surveyed her room. The spell said the sigil had to be bigger, there’s no way it’ll fit. Plutt was already sure to lose it over the paint that had started to decorate the floor. She huffed and dug through her pile of spells, all sloppily copied onto random scraps of paper, napkins, anything she could write on. They were splayed out on the floor next to the beginning of the sigil.

 

She had been sneaking around the restricted areas of the library for four months trying to discern real magic from dud spells. This was supposed to help. _I didn’t come this far for some furniture to get in my way! How the hell…. Levitation?_ Rey pulled out what used to be biochem notes, reading through the red notes in the margin. She eyed the bed and then returned to her study.

 

 _Should work_ … With her eyes closed and her hands stretched out toward the bed Rey muttered the incantation under her breath. Her Sumerian was much worse than her Latin but when she opened her eyes, the bed was mere inches from the vaulted ceiling.

 

“Close enough,” she shrugged and got back to work on the sigil, painting intricate symbols all across her bedroom floor.

 

When she was done Rey stood in the center, “Light and Dark meet me in the middle,” she glanced down at her notes and continued in Latin and Greek. She threw down a handful of grave dirt in the center as instructed, then cut her hand at the end of the life line, letting the blood drip down onto a white binding sigil.

 

The whole thing glowed brightly, the dirt turned to smoke, making her eyes water and her throat burn. She stumbled back, the sigil flickered, the smoke ceased, the bed shook against the ceiling. Her back, between her shoulder blades burned as if she were branded.

 

“Fuck” She quickly reversed the levitation spell, causing the bed to crash down against the floor. The cement held strong but the iron bedframe less so, bending and crumpling, leaving the bed a few inches lower than before. She winced and surveyed for any more damage. Luckily there was none.

 

Rey went back to her protection spell, unsure where she had gone wrong. This was the only spell she’d brought paper for, she’d meticulously copied the whole page. She didn’t feel any more protected, the spell had promised someone would _come_. “Like you were really expecting someone to show up for you…” she growled to herself.

  
Disappointed she made the executive decision to go to sleep instead of spending another school night crying over failed spells.

 

_**Today** _

 

“Who are you?” Rey growled at the shirtless half fucking naked man that stood at the foot of her bed. _Why the hell are you hot_ , her thoughts asked before she could stop them.

 

“Hot? I’m not, it’s cold in this room.” Kylo answered with a robotic, slightly unsure tone, “Who are you?”

 

“I’m… Did I summon you?” Rey asked, changing her mind mid sentence.

 

“Are you a witch?” Ren countered, stepping forward and placing his palms down on the bed. He was leering, scrutinizing the girl before him. _She didn’t smell like a witch._

 

“W-Witch? I-I’m not a… I’m not a witch.” Rey replied, suddenly unsure of herself. Was she a witch? _Spells don’t make you a witch, do they?_

 

Rey’s thoughts were as clear to Kylo as if they’d been spoken aloud. He took them as his cue to investigate. His eyes rolled back, his had tilted toward the ceiling, hands gripping the sheets, muscles bulging. Rey backed further into the wall, the iron head railing dug into her back.

 

“Stop that!” She yelled.

 

“Witch” Ren growled, coming back to himself. His voice was low, dangerous, and not entirely human.

 

“What are you!” She shrieked, scrambling to get to the staff that was propped up by the door. Ren was in front of her before she could get a foot on the floor. It was at that particular moment that Rey realized how big the man was. He was easily a foot taller than her which was saying something because at 5’6”, she was considered tall.

  
“Unbind me witch,” Kylo growled again, he gripped the girl’s shoulder with one hand, and the bed with the other, forcing her back and slightly downward into the bed.

  
“I’m not a witch” Rey growled back breathless and craning her head away from him. He let go and took a step back, as if doused by ice water. He glared daggers at Rey and held her gaze silently, “I’m not a witch, I need your protection.”

 

“Protection?! Do you know what I am?” Kylo shouted, gesturing himself. He stopped and looked around the room before resuming his glaring, “Oh child, you don’t know do you? You don’t know what spell you cast, you don’t know what I am. You’re nothing. No one.”

 

“I am not!” Rey spat, standing to glower up at him. He smirked, unmoved and unaffected. Rey took the time to study him. The man was hot, all sharp angles and soft surfaces, muscular and filled out. The right side of his face, bisected by a pinkish scar running from his forehead down to his collarbone. He had long black hair that barely brushed his shoulders, covering his ears, but raked back in the front as if he had a habit of running his hands through the top. His skin was smattered in beauty spots, all over his arms and chest an- Rey shook her head and refocused. His brown eyes were dark and cold when she met them.

 

“I figured this spell out for myself, and you’re… you’re bound to me, you have to protect me,” Rey ground out, fists clenched at her sides. Ren watched her face heat with anger, lazily taking in her features. She was slight, and plain in a beautiful way. She was tanned, her nightgown showed her shoulders and arms, scars, and scrapes were few and far between, like she worked with her hands. Her hair had clearly been cut by her own hand, slightly uneven but chopped as if it had once been much longer. She was spattered with freckles, “sun spots and angel kisses” an unwanted memory sang in his head. Rey huffed, interrupting his thoughts.

 

Ren laughed, though it was more of a rough chuckle, one that took him by surprise. He crossed his arms and smirked down at the poor girl. Closing his eyes and tipping his head back, he smiled, feeling curved horns reveal themselves, and when he looked back down, he knew his eyes were black. Rey gaped up at him and stumbled back onto the bed.

 

“You’re a-a, you’re a demon?” She whispered weakly, “No, no the spell didn’t… You’re supposed to be… Fuck what the hell did I…” Rey went on and on, under her breath, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong. She backed herself off the other end of the bed and outside the half circle of the sigil.  
“You can’t hurt me,” She said, lifting her chin in defiance. She stood her ground outside the sigil and challenged him with a glare. The demon only laughed and walked right up to the edge of the white paint.

 

“Little one, you have no idea what you’ve done,” Ren says with a smile, his canines are sharper than a human, almost dog-like, and just another intimidation tactic. He steps over the paint and grabs Rey by the neck, lifting her into the air until his arm is fully extended. He glares up at her, squeezing his nails into her jaw. Rey gasps and grabs at his wrist, then his throat, then back at his wrists, wide eyed and panicked. She winces as his nails pierce her skin. To her surprise so does Kylo, she sees the imprints of his nails on his jaw, watches as he loses his breath.

  
He frowns and drops her. Rey falls in a gasping heap at his feet as Ren examines himself in the mirror on the back of her door. With some sputtering she manages to stand, seeing that they have identical marks on their faces from his hand.

 

“What the fuc-“ Rey is interrupted by the sound of the back door to the house swinging open and hitting the side of the house.

 

“GIRL!!” Unkar bellows from the back stoop. He’s glaring daggers at her through the window above the garage, her room.

 

“Shit, fuck, shit!!” Rey growls, rushing to change. She tugs on worn blue coveralls, throws her nightgown over her head, revealing a tube top undershirt, and rifles through a dresser drawer. She pulls out a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt in grey and throws it on.

 

“COMING!!” She hollers back as she struggles to get her head through the damned hole. She zips the coveralls up to the bottom of her shirt, not bothering to put it on the rest of the way. She shoves her feet into some socks and then a tattered pair of black work boots, “Demon dude, you just stay here, I’ll be back at noon and send you home or whatever!”

 

She throws her hair into three buns, lined up down the back of her head, then whilst tightening the last one and somehow shimmying up her coveralls, she manages to rush out the door.

* * *

Ren watched utterly lost, then glanced about the room once she’d slammed the door. His back, between his shoulder blades began to burn. He reached back in confusion, trying to remove whatever had seared him. ‘ **COME’** pierced his panicked thoughts, and it sounded like Rey’s voice. He blinked, and found himself in a kitchen.

 

Ren quit his flailing and turned, to see three buns. He placed his hand gingerly on her shoulder trying not to scare her.

 

Rey jumped clean out of her skin, burning her hand on the pan and flinging her spoon up into the air. Of course, Ren caught it as it flew past his face, flinging egg all around the kitchen. Rey cursed loudly and spun around, blanching.

 

“What the fuck did I tell you,” she began whispering. Rey wretched the spoon from his grip as his hand fell lamely to his side. She opened her mouth to say something else but ended up snapping it shut, someone had walked in on them. Ren turned slowly and Rey clutched the spoon to her chest.

 

“What’s going on in here girl? You look like you’ve seen a ghost…Why are their eggs on the cabinet?” Plutt growled.

 

He was a greasy obese man, who reminded Kylo of a slug. The tank top he wore clung to his sticky skin and there was beads of sweat slopping down his fat, bald head. Rey glanced at Kylo, then the cabinets behind him.

 

“Uhh, I burnt myself?” Rey answered with a question.

 

“You still have to replace that transmission, brat,” he spit as he walked back to wherever he had come from.

 

“He can’t see me little one,” Ren said as Rey glanced back at him.

 

“Oh,” She said softly, turning back to the pan and the remaining eggs. The kitchen was already a mess, but it seemed to partially well kept as if one person was always cleaning up after the other. Ren tossed the runaway eggs into the sink, noting the dirty dishes.

 

“What’s your name?” He asks as he peers out the window above the sink. It faces the street, which is nothing more than a gravel driveway and desert. They must be at the edge of town.

 

“Rey, what’s yours,  _demon_ ,” she adds at the end, reminding him of their situation.

 

“Kylo Ren, some people call me  _Supreme Leader,_  whichever you prefer,” he jests, turning to face her.

 

She makes no move, doesn’t smile at his joke, or even acknowledge he spoke. Ren keeps his spot against the sink as Rey calls out that breakfast is finished. She plates eggs and bacon that Ren hadn’t seen, turns off the stove and walks out. This time she is followed, Ren is still in his underwear. She makes it out to the garage, where a beat-up pickup sits next to mountains of boxes. There’s something else on the other side but Ren can’t see it.

 

Suddenly, she rounds on him, “You need shoes to be in the yard, and clothes, Jesus, please don’t you have a-a cowl or something you can put on?”

 

She turns on her heel, digs up a tool belt and rusty red tool kit before walking back the way she’d come. Ren steps into the yard in a pair of work boots that match Rey’s, a pair of jeans, and grey tee.

 

She gives him a sidelong glance, eyeing his boots, and sighing. The backyard is an acre or two in size, and gated from the high fence that borders the property, to the garage. Once through the gate, sparse grass gives way to dirt, dust and gravel.

 

“I don’t usually come here,” he explains, “especially like this,” he gestures to his body like he’s unsure of it. Rey nods, working her way through a maze of parked, rusting cars. There’s shelves 15 feet high filled with parts, bumpers, engine blocks, tailpipes, and basically anything else you can separate from a body. She navigates the uneven, unkempt rows with ease.

 

“That spell,” he paused to spot Rey under the hood of a rusting early model Thunderbird, “is a powerful one, meant to summon… So, if you’re not a witch what are you?” he asked, changing his mind.

 

Rey shrugged, loosening the transmission mount, the ratcheting of the wrench filled the engine bay with an eerie squeaking. Ren watched as she stood on her tiptoes, one leg suddenly sprung out, keeping her balanced as she reached in further.

 

“I’m no one,” Rey said after a minute, sounding defeated. The ratcheting stopped, “Like you said.”

 

Ren worked his bottom lip between his teeth, trying not to huff. He took a seat on the trunk of the Plymouth sedan that was parked neatly in front of the T-Bird. It groaned under the weight, the suspension making an awful squawk.

 

Rey stood to when she heard the noise, watching him with an eyebrow cocked like he’d done something odd. She held the wrench at one end and gestured to him flippantly.

 

“So how come Plutt can’t see you? That Belvedere sure can feel you,” She asked, as something in the car caught her eye. She turned back to the engine and waited for his answer. Switching wrenches and leaning back over the frame of the car she got back to work.

 

“Plutt,” Kylo said with distaste, “was easy enough to manipulate. Small minded, that one.”

 

Rey chuckled and held her hand out behind her, palm up, “Tell me about it. Hand me that spanner, will you? The three eighths”

 

“This one?” Kylo tried, passing her one from the tool box on the roof.

 

“No” she said once it hit her hand.

 

“This one?”

 

“No,”

 

“This one.” Ren said surely

 

“No,” Rey rolled her eyes and straightened up, “That one, the one I’m pointing to!”

 

Ren held up wrench after wrench, Rey shook her head, more exasperated each time.

 

“The spanner dammit, that one right there”

 

“This one??” Kylo picked up the last wrench in the kit and Rey nodded, eye wide, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“How old are you?” she asked through gritted teeth, yanking on a rusted bolt.

 

“21,” he replies coolly, he snapped his fingers and the bolt came loose, sending Rey into him. He caught her by the armpits as she fell back and straightened her out. Touching her wasn't something he wanted to do per say, yet it kept happening. Kylo frowned a bit and crossed his arms, trying to distract himself from how easily she accepted his help.  _She's just a girl, she has no idea what you are._

 

“You’re a 21-year-old demon?” she asked, brushing herself off and turning to face him. Kylo looked down at her and nodded, leaning against the door of the car.

 

She reached down, feeling around for the bolt, unable to find where it had fallen. Rey squinted in concentration, leaning fully over.  _You look ridiculous,_ Ren thought sullenly. 

 

“So how does that work, were you born all super evil and demon-like or did someone make you that way?” she asked with a grunt.

 

 Her fingers found the bolt. She straightened and inspected it, now rust free, “Holy shit did you deoxidize this thing!? You’ve gotta teach me that one, I’m so tired of sanding these down.”

 

A corner of Kylo’s lip twitched up into a tiny smirk, “I chose to become this way,”

 

“Why the  _hell_  would you do that?” Rey asked casually, still watching the bolt roll about in her hand.

 

“What the hell does it matter to you, witch!” Ren spit. Rey dropped the bolt and took a step back, looking up at him. His eyes were black, his horns showed through his hair. Rey opened her mouth to apologize, or snap back, of which she wasn’t sure.

 

“GIRL!!!” Plutt hollered from the garage.


	2. The Scavenger Witch

“Coming!!” she yelled back.

 

Rey shoved the wrench into her toolbelt and tightened it around her waist. She took a weary glance at Kylo and then the toolbox next to him. Plutt hollered again, and as if tied to a string, Rey bolted.

 

Kylo watched for a second and then cursed under his breath, following her at a brisk pace. If he wasn’t too far, she shouldn’t be able to pu- Ren rolled his eyes, taking in his new surroundings.

 

He stood between the mountain of boxes and the pickup, in the garage.

 

Plutt was growling something at Rey under his breath, another voice interrupted them.

 

“Is it done or not Plutt,” a woman’s voice growled. She sounded awfully familiar, and for that reason Ren decided to stay hidden. Rey mumbled something back to the slime ball, Ren pressed as close to the boxes as possible. There was an annoyed huff, a small shuffle, and then a sigh. Ren could practically hear the eye roll.

 

Intrigued, he sniffed the air. He could smell the magic from Rey’s room above them, and something else, something that smelled like smoke and sulfur, something that smelled like Hell.

 

 _Interesting_. Ren was about to step out when he heard the distinct sound of Rey’s toolbelt running out the other side of the garage. _This is a four-car garage why the hell is her room so small? Who in hell is on the other side?_ Kylo didn’t get the chance to answer any of his own questions.

 

He found himself moving out the side door that they’d been through in the morning, and by his own volition. He tried spend much time thinking about why he was running after a teenage **_amateur_** witch. Thankfully his long legs caught up with her before it got out of hand. 

 

Rey’s legs stuck out from under a shining Audi R8. Its black paint was marred only by the tiny bit of dust that had been kicked up from driving it through the gate in the yard.

 

“Rey,” Ren grumbled. Her name felt weird in his mouth and it showed, “who was in the garage?”

 

“Some broad named Phasma. Plutt does her car up for free, he’s a bookie on the side or something,” she says smoothly, sliding back out.

 

She’d been laying on a piece of tin that had been beaten flat, there was grease on her forehead and in random places on her coveralls. Rey springs up and wipes her hands off. She opens the car and honks the horn twice, then shuts it again. The horn snaps Kylo back to reality, he was reaching out toward Rey?  _Get a hold of yourself._

 

The thing roars to life, lights flashing as the owner, Phasma, turns it over from her key fob.

 

“Shit, gotta go” Ren practically shouts out. Poof, he disappears in a little puff of dirt, kicked up from his sudden departure.

 

Rey should be worried but it’s midday and she’s honestly surprised he hadn’t disappeared earlier. She just huffs and makes her way back to the T-bird.

 

Luckily Unkar is self-sufficient when it comes to lunch, so she can spend the midafternoon finding parts for her bike.

 

What was once a Honda CB750-4, was now a pile of scrap and a frame sitting on cinder block. Once a bright orange, now a faded brown, the bike was brought in a complete wreck, but Rey had managed to hide it in the very back of the yard, much too far for Plutt to ever wander. In this back corner she had made a little home. A car battery was jerry rigged to a radio that had been taken out of some brat’s tuner. She had made a lean-to out of rusted T-Tops and scrap metal that protected her from the sun and anyone’s first glance.

 

Rey was only a sophomore in high school, so her safe place was important to her. In a few years’ time she would be out on her own with no place to go. This bike was supposed to help, _somehow._

 

Brown and green beer bottles hung from the open side to filter the harsh sunlight. They chinked together like fine china at the dinner table in the breeze.

 

Until two of them smashed together and shattered as Ren reappeared that is.

 

“Want to tell me what that was about? And clean up that glass?” Rey snarked, fussing over the radio. She stamped down on the butterflies she felt in her stomach. _You came back_.

 

Ren huffed and waved his hand at the shattered glass lazily, he muttered an incantation and they reformed like a video on rewind. He placed them gently on her makeshift shelf. With a glare the radio flashed to life and ‘La vie en rose’ floated out of the speakers.

 

“That was another… That was a demon. I know her. Can’t you smell her?” Ren asked, slumping into a bucket seat outside of her alcove. He watched as Rey looked from him to the bottles, to the radio, and then back at him. Her mouth was parted slightly as if she were to ask something, but instead she snapped it shut and blushed.

 

“I don’t go around _smelling_ people Kylo,” Rey chastised. She looked almost guilty.

 

“Rey you’re a witch, you could smell her, and she could probably smell you. I bet that’s why she keeps coming back.”

 

“She did smell kind of like battery acid,” Rey admitted, bowing her head in embarrassment. She sat in a rusting lawn chair that looked like it had survived the apocalypse and eyed the repaired bottles.

 

“Can you show me how to do that?” Rey asked, looking incredibly sheepish. Ren watched her for a minute, there was a million smart ass things he could say to her, the most enticing one was _I told you so_! But because he was not an insolent teenager **_anymore_** , he refrained.

 

“You need a teacher,” Kylo inquired too firmly. Rey’s eyes lit up and she nodded, absolutely thrilled. _Shit_.

* * *

 

Well as it turned out, much to the great Kylo Ren’s chagrin, that Rey hardly needed a teacher at all. Her mastery of Greek, Latin, and Sumerian were spot on. Her Egyptian was good for someone who started learning last week, as was her Hindi. Rey blushed at every compliment he spit out before he could stop himself.

 

She learned the reverse entropy spell he’d used on the bottles by the time Plutt yelled at her for dinner. She ordered a pizza and fled back to the yard without eating, in fact Ren hadn’t seen her eat at all today. She had a canteen that she filled in the service sink in the garage, but that was it.

 

Kylo had of course lost track of her a few times, too up in his own head to notice her duck into the garage or up to her room. He figured if she didn’t pull him, then he was free to lounge.

 

The scrap yard was oddly peaceful, except for the occasional interruption from the main house. Plutt was a loud and obviously grotesque man. He seemed careless when it came to most things, including Rey.

 

The rusting cars and tall shelves made a sort of metal forest. As long as the sun wasn’t right over head, there was shady spots that provided a cool spot to lay out. The wild life consisted of lizards, mice, and a few hawks.

 

Rey had given him the whole tour, naming each car in the lot, pointing out cool parts on the shelves, reciting history, the whole shebang, or so she claimed.

 

Rey loved pointing out the animals that scurried off hoods and out of sight. She would shout and point, and then look up at Ren who would smile and nod.

 

He had finally seen the ‘office’ on the other side of the garage which consisted of a desk, filing cabinets and papers  _EVERYWHERE_. There were tools and equipment littered about as well. The whole room made him uncomfortable. Funnily enough, Rey moved about in there as if it was the most clearly organized place on Earth.

 

She had him help her get a car onto one of the service racks as the sunset.

 

“Using magic!” Rey had practically yelled at him. He complied with an eyeroll.

 

Ren managed to conjure up a phone, and he sat in Rey’s apocalypse lawn chair, scrolling through it as she got to work. With a flashlight between her teeth, she pulled apart the car’s transmission, the one Plutt had  ~~asked~~ ordered her to do. She drained the system, left the whole thing in pieces underneath the car, and then came to stand next to him.

 

“Rey, aren’t you going to get in trouble if you le- “

 

“Shut up you’ll ruin it!” she interrupted. Ren raised a very confused eyebrow. Before he could protest, she began the incantation for the reverse entropy spell. Kylo Ren had to focus on keeping his mouth shut. The transmission neatly put itself back together, and slid right back into place, as if it had never been taken apart at all.

 

Rey looked like a 16-year-old who just got a new Porsche for her birthday. She was jumping up and down and hollering like a lunatic. A laugh surprised Ren, and he wasn’t sure whom it had come from until Rey looked at him bewildered and then burst into more deranged laughter.

 

“I made a transmission put itself together and I made a demon laugh!!” Rey shouted at the moon, which was now creeping up in the desert sky.

 

“Demons laugh Rey, it’s not that spe- “A light flicked on in the main house.

 

“Fuck, oh shit, do you think he heard me?” Rey ducked back under the car and pretended she wasn’t finished. Ren stood, every nerve in his body lit up, suddenly put on high alert.  _Rey,_ he realized,  _she doesn’t even know what she’s doing. She’s just scared._

 

After a few minutes, and no response from the house, Rey slunk out to the garage. She replaced the fluid she’d removed and kept as quiet as she could.

 

Ren returned to  ~~her~~ his chair and waited. Once she was done, she invited him up to her room.

 

Once upstairs they stood on opposite ends of the room in an awkward silence. Rey had embarrassed herself in her excitement and even though Unkar hadn’t come down, she was clearly punishing herself. She kept peering out the window. On the wall opposite of her dresser were NEVADA license plates.

 

They covered the whole thing, and varied in age, color, and condition. However, starting from about where her knees were, tally marks ruined the lettering. They were scratched in and ran from one end to of the wall to the other, and then a second row, and then a third, and then a fourth, on and on until the tenth, which was still in progress and had reached up to her chest. They were half way along the wall.

 

Ren watched her scratch anther day into the plate. He spoke, causing Rey to wince, “Can I see the spell you used?”

 

“Yeah but keep it down. I’m going to shower.” Rey finished and gathered it up from the floor. She swept the rest up as well and piled them onto the dresser. Rey took a minute to search through the papers and make sure she wasn’t missing anything, then she handed it to him, grabbed her nightgown from where she’d thrown it on the bed and disappeared downstairs.

 

Ren sat in the window and studied her notebook paper carefully. What she had done was well beyond his capabilities.  _How the fuck did you pull this off._ He heard pipes squeak from downstairs as Rey started her shower. There was a bathroom off Plutts office, but he hadn’t seen the inside.

 

Kylo checked his phone for the time and huffed. He had been in contact with the Knights of Ren who were a few miles north in Las Vegas.

 

He began to write, conjuring a pen, and using the back of her spell.  _Rey, I’ll be back if you need me, it seems as though I don’t have much choice in that matter. I’m going North to meet with my Knights to find a way to reverse this spell. -K.R._

 

He considered writing more, explaining that he was a Traveler, so he’d be a summon away if she needed him, but he refrained. He left the light on and headed out.


	3. SOLO & SON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter stage left: Finn  
> Enter stage right: Han  
> Enter center stage: Puppy!Chewy

Rey hadn’t expected Ren to stay. She hadn’t even expected the spell to work. But when it had, and when he spent the entire day with her, Rey didn’t think he might disappear into the night. _How dramatic._ She glared so hard at the note he left that she was honestly a bit surprised it hadn’t burst into flames.

 

She scrubbed the floor clean and slept soundly, tired from a full day’s work. Tomorrow she’s has school, so there was no making Plutt breakfast, or using magic to rebuild transmissions.

 

When she woke, she dressed in plain jeans and a sand colored T-shirt. Her hair was in her usual buns and she traded her black work boots for brown ones.

 

They were halfway through April so the desert was heating up, which meant girls her age would be walking around with their ass cheeks hanging out.

 

Rey stuck out but blended in. She was invisible, an absolute nobody who came from nothing. Jakku didn’t have a high school, and the neighboring town was no longer accepting out of town permits so, her social worker had arranged for Rey to go elsewhere. she was sent to D. Qar High School, one town over. And the demographic was much _different._

 

The rest of the students were middle and upper class. There was one other poor student, a boy named Finn, but he was the Varsity Quarterback’s boyfriend and a jock himself. As the schools only gay couple, and as the ‘token brown kids of the football team’ (self-proclaimed) they were the opposite of invisible.

 

Today was almost no different. Almost.

 

Rey was heading home, she should have probably kept walking.

 

“Those faggots have it coming,” someone growled up ahead of Rey. The end of the day meant the halls were crowded, so when she saw two boys with their heads bent together, she was surprised at how clearly she’d heard them.

 

“What are you going to do Tommy, Poe is our only chance at the championships this year,” the other one whispered.

 

 _Oh._ Rey couldn’t actually hear them. She had somehow tuned into their conversation, and it was like she was standing right between them. Not a few paces behind them.

 

 _Please don’t say something I have to act on_ Rey grumbled in her head.

 

“I’m not going after him. I’m going after his black boy toy. Finn is second string anyway,”

 

_Oh, you idiot._

 

“Leave me out of this T. I have to go,” his friend split, and Tommy turned toward the football field. There were no football practices at this time of year, but Poe Dameron never had a day off. He practiced everyday after school, and was notorious for crashing other sports to get a few long passes in.

 

Rey let out an exasperated sigh and followed him. _You’re an idiot Rey, this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done_

 

The heat outside was oppressive, and it only made her more annoyed with herself and this Tommy character.

 

Well, it goes like this. Poe and some friends are passing the ball around the field. Finn is sitting behind the bleachers, trying to escape the sun.

 

Tommy charges Finn, lays him out on the ground and starts pummeling him. Finn has the wherewithal to put his arms up to cover his face but not to call for help.

 

 _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid STUPID._ Rey grabs a broom propped up next to a storage closet. With a growl she snaps off the brush over her knee, left with a stick as tall as Kylo.

 

Rey let out the most feral sound the two boys had ever heard, holding the broomstick over her head. Tommy made the mistake of looking up at her and that’s when she swung.

 

Rey hit him with one end straight across the face. As he fell back, Rey followed, using the momentum of her swing and the step forward she took to spin and land another blow with the opposite end. Rey swung a few more times, much less elegantly. She landed a couple, but Tommy soon found the headspace to block.

 

Before she could redouble her efforts, Finn grabbed her by the backpack and took off. He practically dragged her away, and once she turned to run straight instead of backward, he grabbed her by the hand and tugged her along. They ducked into the gym.

 

“So, you’re a linebacker?” Rey asked, surprising herself and Finn. He was out of breath and clutching his side.

 

“Yeah, yes, yeah.” He panted out.

 

Rey nodded, way less out of breath, “I’ve never met a football player before,”

 

He straightened up a bit and began to ramble, “I am a linebacker. This is what we look like. Some of us. Some of us look different,”

 

Finn peaked out the door, Tommy was charging them. **_SHIT_**

 

“What are you doing?!” Rey shouted as Finn grabbed her hand yet again, “Let go of me!” 

 

Instead he took off, running out the door and toward the street.

 

“We gotta move!”

 

“I know how to run without you **_holding my hand_** ” Rey grit out and wrenched her hand free.  _I **do not** like to be touched._

 

Rey lead him to Plutt’s pickup, thanking the gods he let her use it this morning. She tossed the broomstick into the bed and they piled in. Rey tried to turn the truck over, but it refused to start. She tried again. Nothing. Again. _Shit I’m so stupid. I am the most stupid. I am so dumb._ Rey wasn’t panicking yet, she shoved Finn out and they took off down the street.

 

There was an auto shop at the end of the block, run by a grizzled old man and his grizzly bear like partner. The neon SOLO & SON sign was dark as was the shop. Rey heard an engine growl behind them.

 

She turned to see a red Pontiac Firebird that was so ugly it was almost cool.

 

Rey ripped the weather cover off the first car in the lot. The car beneath it was a disaster. It was an odd silver color that looked like rust and chrome all at once.

 

She growled and shimmied open the door using her keys. The badges had been sanded off and the body was almost completely unrecognizable. Rey had no clue if it would run. She got in and started to hotwire it, Finn hesitated until the Firebird turned the corner. He jumped in, clambering over Rey without an apology.

 

“This thing is garbage,” He whined, still clearly panicked. Rey was about to agree when finally, the wires sparked, and the engine roared to life.

 

“The garbage will do!” She shouted over the engine, putting it into gear and slamming down on the gas. _Shit, a clutch._ Rey had never driven a stick-shift before, _I guess I am today._

 

It took her all about 2 minutes of horrid grinding to figure out how to shift. She’d read about it but doing was a different story.

 

They took off, speeding toward Rey’s house. _Plutt is going to be pissed this is so dumb_. Still, Rey kept her cool.

 

Rey kept her cool as they circled about after losing Tommy and his Firebird. 

 

She even managed not to panic when a cop pulled up behind them, out on patrol. It followed them a few blocks, and then lights flashed.

 

 _Fuck. Play it cool, play it cool, play it cool._ Rey pulled over, cut the engine and rolled down her window.

 

“How can I help you officer?” Rey asked smartly, looking up to see a very familiar looking grizzled old man. He grinned, and shook his head, pressing a button on his key fob. The back door of his car popped open and out came a snarling German Shepherd. It sniffed the car, quirked it’s head up at the officer and then sat down next to him.

 

Rey peered up at him, squinting against the sun, and read the badge on his chest. _Captain Solo._

 

 _Fuck_. Rey sighed and sank into her seat. Finn eyed the dog worriedly.

 

“Where’d you get that car kid?” Captain Solo asked. Rey was quiet for a long time.

 

“Rey! Rey, say something!” Finn pleaded.

 

“Relax Big Deal,” he replied, “Come on Rey, I’ll give you an escort back to the shop and we can talk,”

 

_Fuck._

 

* * *

 

Kylo Ren arrived at the Las Vegas mansion that Kira Ren had given him the address to. It was warded so thoroughly that it took Kylo half an hour to get in the front door. When he arrived, he was faced with no one.

 

The entire house was eerily empty. He checked every single room, every door was opened, reopened, and then checked one last time.  _Shit._

 

To make matters even worse, Kylo could feel Rey’s anxiety tugging at something in his chest. He had felt a blip of panic last night, probably when she found herself alone, and then again in the morning. She wasn’t scared enough to call him forth which was quite a relief, but her anxiety mixed with his was making him feel weak and out of control.

 

Ren wandered into the study, finding it full of magic. The collection was astronomical, and ever studious, Kylo began to read.

 

**Rey**

 

Rey drove back to Solo & Son with Finn rambling and raving the whole way. He kept asking her if she’d seen the dog or if they were getting arrested or how she had even found him. On and on until Rey returned the car to its original spot. Captain Solo trailed them the whole way, and even went out of his way to block Rey in with his patrol vehicle.

 

Rey climbed out, Finn stumbled and tripped, nearly careening into the car parked next to them. He even managed to stumble into the door and slam it shut.

 

“My name is Han,” Captain Solo announced as he came around the car to greet his carjackers. His dog came out to join him, sitting obediently at his hip, “And that’s my car.”

 

“Wait Han Solo?” Rey frowned heavily and looked from Han to the sign above the shop entrance.

 

“The one and only,”

 

“Captain of the police force Han Solo?” Finn asked with a gulp. He stood at Rey’s hip, on the opposite of the dog.

 

“Yeah and this is Chewy,” He replied with a smirk. Chewy let out a soft bark in acknowledgment of his name.

 

“Street racer Han Solo?” Rey asked over Chewy’s response. He gave her side eye as Han laughed.

 

“Also, the one and only. But that was another life kid,”

 

“I have the Falcon’s Super Cobra Jet 428 in a crate in the garage,” Rey blurted. Plutt had told her never to touch the engine, claiming it would never be something she needed to concern herself with. Naturally she opened it the next night with shaking hands. She’d practically drooled on it.

 

Han looked shocked. His mouth flew open to say something, eyes wide, then he narrowed them, snapped his mouth shut and studied Rey.

 

“Time to get back to practice Big Deal,” Han said, not breaking eye contact with Rey, who was leaning on the front of her getaway car. Finn took a minute to register what he had said, then nervously looked at Rey. She crossed her arms and huffed.

 

“Go Finn, I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” She said with a soft smile, though her posture didn’t change. He needed no further encouragement, and scrambled, heading back toward school.

 

**Kylo**

 

“There’s been an  ** _awakening_**. Have you felt it?” Snoke’s voice cut through the sound of Ren’s chanting. He had been in the middle of an incantation when the scarred and withering visage of his master appeared before him at the only desk in the study.

 

Ren fell to his knees and answered simply, “Yes,”

 

“Whatever, whoever, it is. It is powerful. Even you, Master of the Knights of Ren, have never faced such a challenge,” Snoke continued without preamble.

 

“What is it Master,” he kept his head bowed, afraid to face Snoke without preparation.

 

“Your Knights still have not found Luke Skywalker. He is getting closer and closer to the  **cure EVERYDAY**!” Snoke spit. Standing to his full height.

 

In person, Snoke was only a foot taller than Kylo Ren, but when astral projecting Snoke made himself intimidatingly massive.

 

“Master we-“Ren was cut off, pain lanced through his skull, down his spine, through every nerve he had. White hot pain burned him alive. His skin blistered and bled. He let out only a weak and strangled cry.

 

Snoke watched as Kylo Ren died in excruciating pain. His power, his influence, his ideas were not to be questioned. When Ren got to the brink, right before he left the ruined body behind, Snoke sucked him back in and replayed the pain in reverse. Kylo healed to his original state and began couching up the blood that had collected in hit lungs.

 

“Did you know reverse entropy could be used on humans?” Snoke sneered as Kylo coughed and hacked, his whole body shook, “but I can never remember how to make it so your clothes reform after they melt like that.”

 

“It’s time for you to face your father young Solo. Han must die,” Snoke finished. He flickered out of existence and finally Kylo collapsed in the puddle of blood he’d coughed up.

 

**Rey**

 

The feeling she got every single time Rey interacted with her foster father Unkar Plutt, was exactly the same.  **RUN. RUN NOW FAST AND FAR.** She had felt that since she was 5 when her parents had dropped her off at his house, and she still felt it now at 16.

 

She got that same feeling leaning on Hans car, and then her stomach flipped and her back burned, right between her shoulder blades, and then she was somewhere else. She wretched, grasping onto a solid oak desk, emptying her stomach contents.

 

Rey stood slowly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and then on a tissue from a box on the desk.  _A desk?_  Rey looked around, mostly up, her gaze following the floor to ceiling bookshelves.

 

Everything was black and white, and clean and sleek, and modern, and  _wrong_. She turned to find a door but instead found a man, lying face down in blood.

 

 _Ohh fuck this is **bad**._ Rey took a tentative step forward, her hands held out as if to brace herself for a fall or to grip the desk, or to do something because someone was  _dead,_ and she had literally magically appeared in wherever the hell she was.

 

 ** _Oh, fuck this is worse._**  The naked dead man? Kylo fucking Ren, demon extraordinaire. Rey fell to her knees at his head and reached out to move his hair from his face.

 

She had been devastated when he disappeared. Kylo spent less than 12 hours with her but he’d been her friend, fiercely, and she became very quickly attached. Plus the whole  _bound_  thing.

 

“Kylo, Kylo, please wake up,” Rey had never been so terrified in her life. She had been beaten, mistreated, neglected, and near death. She had even been  _touched_  by one of Plutt’s goons before she was old enough to work for him.

 

Now though, there was an immortal lying face down in a pool of blood, with pink and purpiling bruises all over his body. And Rey had no clue what did this to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Where the hell is our favorite babysitter?


	4. Ben

Kylo dreamed of a bridge over a black hole.

 

“Ben come home, your mother misses you,” then a screaming red sword. Han is dead, by his hand. He can hear Rey screaming. Then the black hole sucks everything in.

 

“Kylo, Kylo, Kylo” Once his ears stopped ringing, he could hear a soft hysterical chanting. For some reason his heart clenched, _my name is Ben, call me Ben_.

 

“Kylo?! Who is Ben, Kylo can you hear me?” Rey had dragged Ren into her lap, his head had fallen limp against her chest, legs sprawled out awkwardly, arms strewn at either side of her hips. His hips were sandwiched between her knees. She’d also thrown a blanket over him, one she must’ve found in the study somewhere. Despite the wool throw he still shivered in her arms.

 

Rey had one arm wrapped around his chest, under one armpit, her hand pressed firmly over his heart. His head leaned against her bicep, and he found that he couldn’t move a thing. Her other hand was on his cheek, brushing hair away, trying to wipe off blood, they were a flurry of soft touches all around, never still.

 

“Rey,” was all he managed to choke out before he succumbed to unconsciousness.

 

**30 MINUTES LATER**

 

Rey kept telling herself she would get up. She kept telling herself she’d let go. Kylo, Ben? had a faint and sporadic heartbeat and she knew eventually it would stutter to a stop. She didn’t want to feel that, but she couldn’t just let go and leave him, alone could she?

 

Instead, she pressed her face into the back of his head and wrapped her other arm around his shoulder and rocked back and forth, tears flowing without a sound.

 

Finally, when Rey had begun to think she’d just die her with him too, his heart slammed against his chest. There was a pause and then Ren was fighting her. He shoved off her hands, slammed his head back into her face and scrambled forward on all fours.

 

“Don’t! Don’t fucking touch me!“ Kylo blanched as he turned around. He had been trapped in another memory, one of Snoke when Kylo Ren was still Ben Solo.

 

“Rey?” He said so softly that his voice nearly broke. Rey was siting in blood. Her pants were covered in it, as were her hands with were covering one eye. She has a grimace of pain on her face, tears and blood ran down her face.

 

“Oh shit, oh fuck Rey did I do that to you? What the fuck happened Rey why are you bleeding??” He rambled and ran a hand through his hair, he was too afraid to come closer to her, worried about making her uncomfortable, but he leaned forward, ready to move if she asked him to.

 

Rey said nothing, but simply let out a sob and let her hands fall into her lap. There was a cut above her right eyebrow that was streaming blood into her eye and around, which mixed with tears.

 

Kylo stood slowly, wrapping the blanket around his waist. Every part of his body was sore and aching. The bruises were ghastly, and he was sure he had matching black eyes. He could feel the blood that covered him from his chin to his feet basically, begin to dry.

 

“Little one, let’s get you cleaned up,” he said softly, reaching out to her with both hands, “Come on Rey, I’m okay, let’s get you in some clean clothes.”

 

Rey wiped at her eyes. It was completely pointless, the blood from her split eyebrow was all over her face and her tears had just made matters worse. Her hands and legs were soaked in blood from dragging Ren closer, and the rest of her body was covered in odd smears and splatters. She looked up at Ren, her eye beginning to swell, and nodded.

 

She stood mostly by her own volition but took Kylo’s hands anyway.

 

Together, they left the study, Rey used one hand to grip Kylo’s, her free hand to press tissues against her wound, and Kylo using his to hold his hip, trying to remain upright. It was slow going, especially up the massive grand staircase.

 

The black and white modernism was a theme throughout the house. Rey thought for a second that perhaps she was in a museum. The floor was white marble with veins of black running through it. The banister for the staircase: black, the walls and ceilings: white, the doors: black.

 

Everything was devoid of color except for the heavy drapes that covered every single window. Those were blood red and made Rey nauseous.

 

When they reached the bathroom, Rey’s sniffling stopped. Her jaw dropped. The bathroom was bigger than her room, and everything was white. _Am I in heaven?_

 

Ren turned on the shower, it was massive, and the kind you stood in. Everything was white marble. Even the tub was, which sat next to the shower. Rey sat on the lip, pulling off her shoes. Once the water was heated to Kylo’s liking, he walked out.

 

“I’ll find some clothes,” was all he had said. He didn't even look back at her.

 

In his absence Rey began to spiral. She had no clue what time it was. She had no clue even where exactly she was. She was covered in blood, and her chest was sore from her crying.

 

_I just disappeared, shit! Han saw, fuck, he saw me just disappear!_

 

She had seen Ren’s fevered dream, somehow, she’d tapped into his mind, and watched him kill Han without hesitation. Han had called Kylo Ben. She’d heard stories of the boy who’d joined a cult and been sacrificed. They found him three months later, when the leader had overdone the morphine, and Ben overdosed. The news article said he’d been raped for months, kept in chains, drugged, whipped, beaten, cut, and more.

 

Rey couldn’t take it anymore. She started to cry, then started to sob, and eventually she threw up, head bowed into the toilet.

 

**Kylo**

 

Everything was burning and freezing at the same time. He had _died._ Bodies weren’t supposed to die, and his was quite pissed off by the whole ordeal. He limped into one of the bedrooms, finding a dresser stocked with black clothing.

 

They were men’s clothes, and none of it fit him, except for a pair of boxers. He ditched the blanket in a trash can and kept on his search. As he walked, he put up the wards he’d taken down, and then some, making sure to hide Rey. If Snoke had known that she was the awakening, and that they were bound, they were both royally screwed.

 

It took him maybe 15 minutes to find a shirt and leggings for Rey, as well as a shirt and sweats for himself. He held them at arm’s length, careful to keep them blood free.

 

When Ren returned to the bathroom, they fell to the floor.

 

There were bloody hand prints on the tub, droplets lead to the toilet, which had matching prints. The steam kept it from drying and made the whole place smell of iron.

 

Ren lit the candles on the vanity with a sweep of his hand, nearing the shower. Rey was in the bottom of it, curled up under the stream of hot water.

 

He hesitated, then climbed into the shower with her, and sank down, sliding his back along the warmed marble.

 

The water was hot and washed the blood off them without much effort.

 

“Ben…” was all Rey mumbled, and he broke.

 

“Come here kid,” he whispered. Rey climbed into his lap, her clothes were soaked, her hair was slipping out of her buns. She cried into his chest, and all he could do was wrap his arms around her and let the water hit his face.

 

* * *

 

 

Ren woke with a start. He was freezing and soaking wet, and Rey was no longer in his lap. The water had been turned off, the candles extinguished, and the steam in the room let out. Kylo got up slowly, ditching the wet boxers along the way. He toweled off and dressed, searching for a comb.

 

Once his hair was no longer a sweaty, bloody mat, he took stock of himself in the mirror. He was pale, and the bruises were fading to pink and yellow splotches. His black eyes were more like dark circles. He vaguely remembers enchanting the shower to heal, and thanks the gods that he did.

 

He must have looked like absolute shit when Rey found him because now, he looked like a polished turd.

 

Ren turned to grab his shirt when something on his back caught his eye. The sigil that Rey had painted on her bedroom floor, was fading off his back before his eyes. It was about the size of his hand, and it sat right between his shoulder blades. Like a brand.  _Fuck._

 

No wonder his back had burned when Rey called him places. He had been bound  _and_ branded by this girl, and the brand acted like it had been burned afresh every time they traveled to each other.

 

_Fuck, Rey might have a brand too, if I pulled her here, she might be just as bound as I am._

 

Throwing on his shirt with a groan, he ventured out to find Rey.

 

It took him exactly two seconds because a crash, clatter, and then unpleasant thump rang through the house. Ren didn’t waste time walking.

 

He was in the hallway one instant, and the kitchen next. A broken glass, a couple pots, and several wooden spoons lay scattered across the floor next to Rey, she was sitting on her ass, looking up at the open cabinets above the counter. She was dressed in the all black ensemble he’d found, and her buns had been redone.

 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Ren spit before he could stop himself. Rey opened her mouth to speak, jumping at his voice. Ren could practically hear her  _Ben!_ But it never came.

 

Instead she glared and got up.

 

“It’s not like I planned on falling you know.  I was trying to reach that damned pot, but I lost my footing,”

 

Kylo helped her put the kitchenware back where it belonged. He nodded toward the broken glass, and without hesitation Rey used her newfound skill to fix it.

 

“Do you want to explain any of this to me?” She questioned, sounding smaller than she’d hoped to.

 

Ren deflected, “Are you hungry?”

 

He was answered by her rumbling stomach.

 

“Let’s go eat something, I’ll explain everything over some food. I forgot about the whole  _eating_ thing,”

 

So, Rey gathered her shoes while Ren dug around for a pair. He managed to find her a grey hoodie, and after quite some digging, even found himself real jeans, and a red jacket.

 

When Rey gave him a once over and then a  _look,_ he merely shrugged.

 

“I may have died but I’m not going out in public wearing sweatpants.”

 

Rey managed a small chuckle and Ren couldn’t help the smirk on his face.

 

They moved to the garage, content and carefree, like two friends who regularly go to lunch after dying and teleporting. That was until Ren opened the door, and not one or two but seven cars sat in a spacious garage.

 

Rey shoved past him, nearly knocking him over in her haste, and ran up to each one. At the end, the last car was covered by a black tarp. She ripped it off and  _squealed._

 

Ren winced, and laughed as she made an offhanded comment about them all being black.

 

“WE’RE TAKING THIS ONE TELL ME WE GET TO GO IN THIS ONE BENIWANTTODRIVEITLETMEDRIVEIT!” She was yelling and then crowding him, hands gripping his shoulders.

 

“Where’s your license little one?” Rey stopped shaking him and frowned, looking devastated. He chuckled, and Rey beamed. He tried to ignore the funny fuzzy feeling he got in his chest when she called him Ben, but it made his head spin.

 

“Fine you can drive but you have to go really really fast,” Ren nodded his ascent and they climbed into the sleek little sports car.

 

“What even is this?” Ren asked, starting it. The engine roared and Rey bounced in her seat.

 

“This is the 2019 Corvette Z06! It’s got 650 horsepower produced by a supercharged V8 that…”

 

Rey continued rambling about the car as Kylo pulled out of the driveway, and when he got onto the road. She paused only to tell him to put his foot down harder, or to lighten up his braking, as if he wasn’t 5 years older than her and needed a driving lesson.

 

The sun had begun to set, and the strip was alive with activity and lights, Rey paid it all no mind, explaining how the grip worked.

 

She stopped finally, when Kylo parked outside a “Classic Diner” a mile off the strip. They climbed out and Rey was eerily silent.

 

“We’re in Vegas?” She asked once they had been seated. Kylo nodded. Her frown deepened, and she began to pick at her fingernails, digging out dirt and blood from underneath them.

 

The waiter gave them an odd look but took their orders with his best customer service smile.

 

The food arrived quickly, and they ate in complete silence.

 

Then Rey broke their spell, sliding her cleaned plate forward, and dropping her napkin onto of it.

 

“Can I call you Ben? I don’t like Kylo…”

 

“We should uh… talk about what happened.”

 

“I know who you are,” Rey began, but Ren slammed his fist on the table, rattling everything on it and Rey. She leaned back in her seat, putting distance between them.  Everyone in the diner suddenly had their eyes on the pair.

 

“Let’s get go  home. We shouldn’t be discussing this in public” Rey said quietly and cooly.


	5. Chewie vs Chewy

Well it went like this: they paid, left, and Rey sat down in the Corvette before Kylo had even opened the door.

 

He never did open the door. And Rey didn’t stay in the Corvette, instead she heard Ren snap his fingers, and when she turned to see what he’d done, she was in Plutt’s truck, in the driver’s seat, and it was dark. Way past curfew.

 

 _Fuck_.

 

Well there was only one thing to do, go home. So, Rey did. And Plutt was passed out drunk on the couch when she returned his keys in the house. She thanked the gods, and went up to her room, and passed right out.

 

**Kylo**

 

Ren smelled the others before he saw them. He sent Rey back where she’d come from, hoping she had enough good sense to put herself somewhere safe.

 

Hux and Phasma were Snoke’s lapdogs. Phasma only a little less so than Hux. They rolled up in the same R8 that had been at Plutt’s scrapyard the previous day.

 

“Out for a quick bite Ren?” Hux sneered, as he stepped out of the car. He was a foot shorter than Kylo, but his slimy presence made up for the lack of physical intimidation. Even Ren had to stop himself from physically recoiling.

 

The pasty pale skin, permanent sneer, and the shock of perfectly quaffed orange hair made Armitage stick of privilege and prejudice. Both Hux and Phasma were dressed in expensive looking suits, as if they’d come from a business meeting.

 

Maybe they had, Hux was a deal broker, the head of that department in fact, and Phasma oversaw the muscle. She and her army of lesser demons collected. Kylo and the Knights managed Satan, Angels, hellhounds, and any other myth, lore, or story that they could get their hands on, keeping Snoke on his throne.

 

Phasma got out of the driver’s side and came around to stand next to her ginger counterpart.

 

“We’ve been instructed to take you to Han Solo,” She said firmly. Ren watched her eyes flit to his car, and then to him, as if to say _I know. I can smell her._

 

“I’m not doing that tonight. There’s something I have to take care of first,” Kylo hissed back at them. He clenched his fists at his side and tensing for a fight. He and Phasma stared daggers at each other, Hux glared up at Ren.

 

“You don’t have a say _demon_ ,” Hux snapped, stamping his foot. Phasma and Ren rolled their eyes, and if Ren hadn’t been serious about having other things to do, he’d probably laugh.

 

“Listen to me underling, I will not repeat myself,” Kylo spit back.

 

“Boys, maybe we should ask Snoke,” Phasma went to say more but the glares that snapped in her direction shut her up. She rolled her eyes, threw her hands up and went back to the car.

 

“I’ll meet you back at Starkiller in an hour Ren.” Hux snapped, following after Phasma.

 

_Starkiller, what fucking nerds._

 

Kylo climbed into his car and waited for the dynamic duo to leave.

 

**Rey**

 

Two days passed before Plutt had the wherewithal to punish Rey. She was cooking dinner in the kitchen when he was sober enough to get up.

 

“Little Rey, you really are a dumb **_bitch_**!” He had growled, gripping her shoulders. Rey struggled to turn around, doing her best not to cry out. He forced her over the stove, shoving her face into the steam of boiling pasta water.

 

 Eventually she couldn’t stop herself, “BEN!”

 

He never came. And Plutt had only laughed.

 

Rey walked away with first degree burns on the side of her face, and second degree burns on her hand, where she’d gripped the stovetop to try and force herself away from the heat.

 

Four more days passed before she tried to call him again.

 

At school, Finn now sat with her at lunch, under the bleachers. Finn’s Nana had even started making him “extra” lunch when he told her about how skinny and frail his newfound friend looked.

 

Poe had joined them a couple times, he and Rey talked motorcycles and muscle cars, but his popularity kept him busy and Finn insisted on sticking with Rey whenever Poe went off campus for lunch.

 

It was Monday, and the school day had ended, which means Rey had begun her walk home from class when a familiar police car stopped her.

 

“Rey, hop in, my shift just ended, and we need to talk,” Han had said, and Rey had no choice but to comply.

 

Well after Han had explained that Ben and his mother were indeed witches, and that Kylo Ren was what he went by now that Ben was a demon, Rey had tried to call him, thinking perhaps he’d come face the truth. Or say something, like  _hey sorry for lying and leaving you alone all the time._  He hadn’t.

 

They (Han, Rey, and naturally, Chewy) all got out of the car once they’d reached the shop.

 

“Han!” Rey jumped nearly out of her skin when a large, rather hairy man came barreling out of the garage door. He was probably a foot taller than Kylo, and he was wearing brown coveralls that had the name _Chuy_ neatly embroidered into the breast pocket.

 

“Rey, meet Chewie, Chewie, meet Rey. She’s like Ben.” Rey smirked at the way Han pronounced his name.

 

“Buenas tardes señora!” He bellowed. Rey smiled. The man was massive, and had a full beard and long hair, pulled into a little ponytail at the back of his neck. His skin was only a few shades lighter than his coveralls, but his hair was jet black (minus the grey strands mixed in here and there).

 

“Hola… Wait, you and the dog?” she asked, looking down at the other Chewy who was sitting obediently at the foot of Han.

 

“Un chiste” Chewie explained. Rey nodded. His accent was extremely thick, and Han had later explained he was from Central America, but “honestly wasn’t sure how true that story was…”

 

“You speak Spanish well Rey,” Han said, coming up to her side. She mumbled and embarrassed thank you. “The dogs real name is Boba, but it pisses this vato off so much that I can’t help but call him Chewy,” he explained

 

Boba yipped and Chewie rolled his eyes. He muttered something about confusing the poor animal, but the pup just wagged his tail against the ground and watched the three.

 

Rey spent the day with Chewie and Han, rewiring the starter on the Millennium Falcon. Han explained that he had to part the car out after losing race to a man named Ducain. Rey filled in the blanks, Ducain had been robbed by Irving Boys who’d then lost it to Unkar in a bet.

 

“I can’t believe this thing made the Kessel Run in 14 minutes!” Rey had exclaimed once they started the car up.

 

“Twelve!” Han and Chewie had angrily corrected her. Han mumbled under his breath about her mistake for the rest of the day.

 

At sunset Han drove Rey home. He handed her a sand colored 1911 Desert Eagle U.

 

“I can handle myself,” she ground out as he held it out to her. His radio chirped, he turned it down.

 

“I know that’s why I’m giving it you,” she hesitated, “Take it,”

 

She did, grabbing it by the grip, messing with the safety switch.

 

“You know how to use that?”

 

“Yeah. You pull the trigger”

 

“Little bit more to it then that…” Then Han had shown her how to release the magazine, manipulate the slide, turn the safety on and off, and field strip it.

 

“Keep it clean.” He had said before handing it back to her. She nodded, holding it the way he’d shown her, with her finger away from the trigger.

 

“Thank you…”

 

“I’ve been thinkin’ about bringing on some new crew Rey. Someone who can keep up with Chewie and me… appreciates the Falcon,”

 

“Are you offering me a job?” she’d nearly shouted. Boba barked from the back of the car, whining as he nosed his way between them. Unkar had meandered down the stairs of the house and was heading toward the patrol car.

 

“I wouldn’t be nice to you… and the pay isn’t much,” he had quickly clarified.

 

“You’re offering me a job!” Rey said excitedly. She took a deep breath and exhaled a heavy sigh. “Maybe once I’m old enough…” she nodded towards Plutt.

 

“Think about it,” Han said.

 

“I’d better get home,” Rey huffed, petting Boba before she climbed out of the car. Her gun and a box of ammo was shoved safely into her backpack.

 

Plutt waited until they were back inside to yell at her about skipping her “part” of the work for the day, swearing she wouldn’t be allowed to eat until she had finished parting out the wrecked cars they’d been disentangling all week.

 

That night she slept with the gun under her pillow and didn't think about Kylo Ren at all.

 

* * *

 

 

**Kylo**

 

For Ren, it went like this: He spent the first day in the study, trying to remove the bond. Phasma and Hux paced like wild animals. The second day, the mansion came alive as people prepared it for Snoke’s arrival.

 

Snoke didn’t show until the fourth day, and he was pissed. Kylo, Hux, and Phasma were not supposed to be waiting around for him, but Kylo had insisted, and they had foolishly listened.

 

Now Hux and Ren stood before Snoke. Snoke insisted they remain “true to themselves” so Ren’s eyes were black, his teeth sharp, horns sticking out through his hair.

 

Hux was full-blooded and proud of it. He made a grotesque show of strength while they’d waited to be let in. Shedding his clothes, and then his skin, what was left of Hux looked a bit like a human, minus the skin. And plus bloody red horns, red eyes, teeth so sharp they poked out, nails long and black, and of course, the smell of rotting.

 

It took everything Ren had not to wince, or vomit, or both.

 

Phasma was a bit more subtle about it. She too was just as awful to look at, but kept her silver pantsuit on, and if you focused enough on that, you could almost forget that she was red, and a  demon.

 

They were in the study again, and all Kylo could do was watch the spot where the blood stain had been just a few days ago.

 

“Ren though it was necessary Supreme Leader, he- “

 

“ **General**! You’re dismissed!” Snoke had bellowed. Phasma had left a few minutes earlier, dismissed to oversee preparations on a very lucrative deal. But Hux became defensive and had mistakenly begun to grovel and whine.

 

“Kylo Ren… you’re stalling, and…  _ah_ ” Snoke leaned back in his chair, “you’re hiding something young Solo,  _a memory block_ , and a good one”

 

Kylo could feel Snoke slipping into his mind.

 

Supreme Leader Snoke was like a gas, filling and touching everything. He took his time, letting Ren choke on memories. His initiation, and the weeks of torture he endured. His Fall, when he’d taken every last member of Luke’s coven, and fed them to Hell  Hounds. Leia, always carting him around to her important Republic of Magic meetings, ignoring him. Han, always uneasy, wary, even when Leia made them spend time together, even when they raced.

 

“Master, if I may, don’t…  _touch_ … that block.” Kylo gritted out. At some point he’d fallen to his knees and was now struggling to stay upright.

 

“I can take whatever I want,” Snoke cooed, reaching out to Kylo, turning his palm toward the sky, intensifying Ren’s discomfort.

 

“Please they’re memories of a girl,” Snoke withdrew, interested in his apprentice’s honesty. He leaned back in the leather armchair, and smiled.

 

“ ** _A girl_**?”

 

“Yes I… I had some… _base_  desires, I… I took care of them. She took care of them.”

 

Snoke searched Kylo for a lie, prodding at his thoughts, but Rey had been effectively protected, warded from Snoke even in his mind. The girls face had been blacked out of his memory, her identity and her powers hidden.

 

“I’m glad to see you were smart enough to erase any further…  ** _distractions_** ” Snoke said with a vile smirk on his face. 

 

Kylo stood slowly and kept his gaze pointed at the floor.

 

“Your father is a weakness that must be  **snuffed**  out, if you don’t think you’re… _ready_ …,” Snoke pauses to think. Long grotesque fingernails rapped against the oak desk, and he was grinning widely.

 

Suddenly, Ren was on his hands and knees, gasping for air. He coughed up black smoke, then sludge.

 

He cried out, as best as he could without any air left. Something had bitten into his calf muscle. He was now on his elbows, trying to muster the strength to turn toward his attacker.

 

Suddenly there was no need, Ren recognized the burning,  ** _Hell Hounds_**. Invisible teeth sank into his other leg. He could hear them growling and snarling as they tore at the flesh in his legs.

 

He coughed, and coughed, and finally started to lose consciousness as the hounds pulled him backward toward the door.

 

“I’ll give you until Winter Solstice…  ** _Kylo Ren_** ,”

 

“Yes, Supreme Leader.” And then Snoke disappeared, and Ren blacked out.

 

  ** _Three days later_**

 

Ren woke up in a tub. The entire bathroom reeked of magic.  _Healing magic_.

 

“Movan Ren,” he croaked. He was naked, naturally, and the water he was lying in was a muddy red color that was thick.  _ **Blood**. Fucking witches._

 

“Kylo,” Movan purred, she was sitting on the bathroom counter, playing with a little flame that hoovered over her open palm. The flame went from red to pink, and burst into sparks as she closed her hand.

 

“Whose blood is this?” He snapped, sitting up to glare.

 

Movan Ren was a beautiful creature. Her human form was well muscled, but had a cat-like elegance, which was unsurprising. Movan’s specialty, ailuranthropy.

 

Movan spent most of her time doing research in the Amazon Rainforest for Snoke. Her form of choice was not the mysteriously beautiful woman before Ren, but a rather large leopard, that had earned quite a legend among locals.

 

But today Movan lounged on the counter, looking deadly in her black robes. She had a thick Haitian accent, and her dark skin contrasted against the marble bathroom. Her eyes were a piercing green, her kinky hair was cropped short and died blood red.

 

“You always ask the silliest questions darling,” Movan chided, and hopped down from the counter top, “How do your legs feel?”

 

She sat down next to the tub, and reached in, grabbing Kylo’s leg by the ankle. She smirked, and pulled, lifting his leg out of the blood, and sending the rest of him under.

He forced himself upward, now tinted red. His hair dripped. When he wiped his face, he realized he had started growing facial hair.

 

 _Fuck._ “How long have I been here Mov,” She smiled, and brushed some soaked hair away from his eyes, petting his horns as she went. She ran her hands through the blood, which was still warm, almost uncomfortably so. Ren kept his face impassive and expressionless.

 

“Three days. I kept you in stasis, you’re always so fussy when healing,” She examined his legs nonchalantly, and nodded, standing suddenly, and dropping his leg with an unceremonious splash.

 

She gestured to a pile of clothes next to the sink.

 

“Go ahead and get cleaned up, you know I hate it when you’re bloody,” with that she sauntered out, and closed the door.

 

So that is just what Kylo Ren did. He took entirely too long to shower, blaming the wobbliness of his legs. Then he dressed, shaved, and hid his horns.

 

Then he went to find Rey.

 

It was late at night, but his arrival woke her.

He stood at the end of the bed, taking a deep breath. Rey was glaring. Ren was about to begin a long winded, rather uncomfortable apology but instead Rey threw a torque wrench at him. And then a shoe, and then she was coming at him, clambering out of bed, lunging off the end of it, and tackling him to the ground.

 

Ren let her.

 

She hit him and screamed, tears running down her face. She punched and elbowed and jabbed, bruising and bloodying his newly healed face.

 

Ren let her.

 

“I know Rey, I’m sorry, I know…. I’m  _fuck_  I’m sorry,” He repeated until she stood. He sat up, letting her stand over him.

 

She was furious and heartbroken, and her hands were bloodied. She was seething, her breathing was reduced to violent gasps and sobs. All Kylo could think was she was  _beautiful_.

 

And then she fell to her knees, straddling him, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

 

Kylo let Rey cry into his chest until she had no more tears.

 

“Come on little one, let’s get you back into bed,” He carried her, laid her down, and pulled up the covers, tucking her in.

 

“Stay,” Rey whispered, sounding much more broken than she’d meant to.

 

“You’re not alone Rey,”

 

“Neither are you,” she cried, wincing at the sound of her voice breaking.

 

It didn’t matter in the end, because when Rey woke up the next morning, Kylo was passed out, sitting with his back against the bed, and his head tipped up toward the wall his horns stopping him from having his neck craned at a ridiculous angle. He was snoring. She touched his horns lightly, and giggled, nearly hysterical.

 

"You look like a little goat man," she whispered, delirious, and went right back to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so my Spanish is limited to spoken slang because that's how Puerto Ricans in LA learn Spanish (or is it just me?) long story short, if it's wrong, please correct me.


	6. Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is violent, and gory, and SPOILER ALERT Rey experiences a sexual assault.  
> 

It was Rey’s second to last week of school, and she was Hellbent on going, much to Kylo’s disappointment.

 

To make matters worse, Rey was insistent on calling him Ben, or goat boy, and of the two he preferred goat boy. By Thursday he’d given up on correcting her, having received the cold shoulder after snapping at her Tuesday night.

 

Ren spent Rey’s school days at Starkiller in the study mostly. He warded himself so thoroughly against the demons and witches that milled about, that he’d actually scared Phasma, who thought he’d been a ghost. She didn’t find it nearly as funny as Kylo did.

 

Movan had disappeared back to wherever Snoke had unearthed her, and the Supreme Leader would spend 3 whole months in Hell before returning to Starkiller.

 

Friday rolled around, and Rey was all set to go to Han’s after school. They’d spent all but three hours in the shop before Rey felt her heart leap.

 

She dropped her wrench. Boba let out a huff as he rolled over on his beat up dog bed, disturbed by the noise.

 

“Sorry buddy,” she muttered. Her heart leapt again. Then her back started burning. Rey took a steadying breath, trying to figure out why the sensation felt so  _familiar_.

 

_**Ben.**  Fuck._

 

Rey wiped her hands on her jeans, wincing at the grease streaks. She’d just gotten these at the thrift store last week.

 

“Chewie I have to go, I forgot I have… I have a brake line to repair at home. Tell Han I’m sorry!” she called out toward the shop office. She waved goodbye to Boba. She heard a muffled reply, but Rey already had her bag over her shoulder.

 

The  _minute_  her foot contacted the sidewalk outside of the shop, Rey was in her room, standing in a sigil that had been drawn on the floor.

 

“Ben is that  **Sharpie!** ” She cried as soon as she could smell it. But Ben wasn’t there just Kylo Ren, in all his demon glory.

 

His hands were smoking, his eyes gleamed black, his chest heaved as he paced. A hand caught on his horns as he raked it through his hair.

 

“Where were you Rey!” He growled, voice lower than usual. It had an unhuman undertone to it, “You were gone for three hours!” He bellowed.

 

“Be-“

 

“Don’t you  ** _dare!_** ” He snapped, crowding her against her wardrobe, “Where were you.”

 

Rey was holding her backpack straps so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She was looking anywhere except Ren. She backed up even further as he stepped into her space, inhaling deeply through his nose.

 

“You…” he inhaled again, “ ** _Han Solo_**? The father you  _never_  had?” Ren spit, gripping the dresser with one hand, and tilting her head up by the chin with the other. The wardrobe creaked, and cracked, a piece of the door splintering in his grip, yet the hand on her chin was gentle.

 

“What happen…” Rey didn’t get to finish. Kylo let out an absolutely feral growl.

 

“He would have disappointed you ** _… Greatly_** ”

 

And then he was gone.

 

Rey spent the rest of the day’s sunlight beating a scrapped radiator with her makeshift broomstick staff.

 

He returned on Sunday, and spoke nothing of the incident. When the silences got too awkward he’d just mutter “I don’t want to talk about it,” or  “I’m not very good at controlling my temper” which had received quite the eyeroll.

 

School ended uneventfully and Finn had made what Rey suspected to be an empty promise, to come hang out with her as often as he could.

 

She spent the first month working in the yard for Plutt and working with Ren in whatever free time she had. After he’d snapped at her, Rey didn’t go back to Solo & Son.

 

Ren had taught her several more little “everyday spells” as he’d called them, but he’d refused to teach her anything to defend herself.

 

She found him a few times, sitting on her CB750-4, which he called BB, reading books on warding, battle magic, necromancy, and increasingly more interesting subjects. When she pried too far, he’d snap his fingers and the book would be gone.

 

When she had free time and he wasn’t around, she’d pull out some of the ragged, unreliable texts she’d swiped from the public library.

 

Once he’d found her knee deep in bubbles in her room.

 

“Are you having a bath little one?” He’d cooed with a shit eating grin. Rey glared from where she’d been casting on her bed.

 

“You’re the one in the  ** _bubbles_** ,” She’d said with a shrug. Rey recited the spell again quickly, and pointed her hand out, jokingly Spiderman like, and bubbles shot up from the floor to cover him from horn to toe.

 

Ben then showed her how to properly do the dousing spell she was attempting.

 

“You’ve got to stop taking these library books. This is hardly  _magic_ ,” he’d scolded once she’d gotten it right, and everything in her room was sopping wet. Including a young witch and her disgruntled demon.

 

* * *

 

 

By July the desert heat had brought several cars into the shop, and Plutt rehired the goon who’d made the (apparently nonfatal) mistake of manhandling Rey.

 

His name was Bala Tik, and though not a very large man, Bala was a force to be reckoned with.

 

He was a decade older than Kylo, but just as fit. He always wore jeans and a greasy white undershirt, and his head was buzzed nearly bald. Bala Tik looked boyish in the face but his nose was bent at an odd angle, and he had piercing light brown eyes.

 

He reminded Rey of a sheep or goat, always working his jaw, chewing tobacco. And he was always glancing around like someone might realize he’s not where he should be.

 

Unlike Plutt, he searched every inch of the yard himself, instead of asking Rey to do it. That meant her little alcove had been taken down, and scattered for the summer.

 

BB was dismantled, and moved up into Rey’s room. The parts, which Rey insisted on sorting into boxes took up the entire floor, except for the corner with Ren’s summoning sigil and where the door swung in.  

 

At first Rey thought Ben was spending more time with her because he liked the yard. He’d even started wearing less black to keep the heat off him, claiming that he was too lazy to use magic.

 

They both knew he just had a secret preference for white t-shirts.

 

 He would perch himself on a roof, or in the shade of a shelf, and once he sat in the apocalypse lawn chair. It broke after about 5 seconds.

 

She never made the mistake of working in the garage with Bala. Being in such a tight space, and in close proximity to him was enough to make her skin crawl, but put 3 walls around that tight space and Bala was a whole new animal.

 

After a while, Rey noticed Ben’s eyes would flash. He had beautiful brown eyes, but when they reached Bala, they’d flash black.

 

By mid-July Rey was fluent in his unspoken language. She understood what he was saying when his eyes flashed, and he leaned forward, a hunter eyeing prey. He kept his horns out, and they helped Rey study the tilt of his head when Bala spoke.

 

“Hand me the 13 torque wrench sweetheart,” Bala cooed, sliding out from underneath a late model Range Rover. It was having serious emissions issues, but Bala insisted on an oil change and tune up. Him and Plutt were excellent at preying on their customers.

 

Rey handed him the 15, “the drain plug is not a size 13,” was all she muttered, dropping it on the floor next to him. She was on a step stool, working to adjust the timing chain under the hood.

 

Bala started cussing her out, growling about her disobedience. Ren stood from his perch on the hood of their favorite Thunderbird. Rey stopped listening to his abuses watched her demon advance on him.

 

She could tell he was pissed, and so she said nothing as he crouched down next to Bala Tik’s legs.

 

“Watch this little one,” he said with a devilish smile. His voice was deep and laced with magic, so Rey knew Bala had no clue there was a demon at his feet.

 

She recognized his Latin immediately, it was a spell from his most recent obsession,  _Procedures an_ _d Practices of Conjuring, Summoning, and Binding_. He hadn’t let her read it, and had even cast a protection so she’d never hear him say it in the right language.

 

Rey didn’t know exactly what the spell did, but Bala rolled out from beneath the car slowly, with a faraway look in his eye. Ren waved his hand and Bala’s eyes refocused, on Kylo.

 

“I’m here for your soul Bala Tik,” Ben growled, eyes black, horns in full view, and hands emitting smoke.

 

Bala  _fainted_. He passed out right then and there, and Rey and Ben were doubled over laughing like crazy people. After a minute Ben kicked the roller and sent Bala back under the car, still giggling.

 

They shared smug looks and little chuckles for two weeks, especially when Bala refused to go under the car for  ** _anything_**.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s not until August 23rd that Bala speaks out of line to Rey again, and when he does, she can tell he’d been waiting.

 

They’re deep in debate about an engine mount that’s failed twice, Bala think’s she’s messed up the compression ratio and that it’s snapping the mount, Rey thinks the mount is defective.

 

“This is what happens when Plutt doesn’t order new parts. We’ve been through three mounts on this car already, two of which weren’t even from the right car!” Rey was yelling. She had a screwdriver in one hand, and an oily rag in the other, and she was gesturing around like crazy.

 

If Ben were watching he’d tease her and say she looks Italian, or like a Muppet. Funny thing is Rey hasn’t seen Ben since he went after one of his Knights.

 

He’d made a big fuss about some sort of betrayal, and having to see Movan, and  “damned cats!”

 

The realization that Ben wasn’t here to mock her made Rey drop her hands.

 

“The owner wanted this thing race ready! Plutt isn’t going to lose customers because of you,  little cunt!” Bala bellowed. He had been underneath the car, checking the transmission mount, which had miraculously held up through all three breaks.

 

Now though, he was standing on the other side of the hood. The Dodge Coronet had maybe three feet of front end, maybe a bit more considering the massive naturally aspirated V8, but Bala made it seem like the front of a VW Bug or one of those Smart ForTwo deathtraps.

 

He rounded the corner in two quick strides, and Rey made the fatal mistake of scrambling backward instead of turning on her heel and running for dear life. She fell, tripping over here toolbox, slamming down into the hard dirt.

 

Her head spun, the sky went dark as Bala Tick crowded over her.

 

“Leave me alone! It’s not my fault you’re a worthless mechanic!” Rey screamed, hoping to get Plutts attention, anyone’s really.

 

The back of a heavy, grease stained hand, contacted her face, and she embarrassingly blacked out.

 

When Rey woke up, everything hurt, and she was laying flat on her back on Plutts desk, which had been wiped clear in haste. Papers and pencils, and parts were flung across the floor.

 

She started to prop herself up on her elbows, wincing against the movement. Her whole body was tense and sore from hitting the ground, and the right side of her face stung from Tik’s hand.

 

Rey closed her eyes as the world spun around her, she was so dizzy that she laid back down tin defeat. Groaning, she lifted a hand up to her face to feel for bleeding but was stopped short. She was tied down.

 

Ice cold, numbing panic shot straight down her spine.

 

_Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck_

 

She pulled and kicked and tried to wriggle free, her head was still reeling, so she couldn’t even focus her eyes long enough to see what the hell she was tied down with. It had a little give to it when she pulled on it, _wiring._

 

_Fuck!_

 

She took deep, rushed breaths, on the verge of hyperventilating and started to mutter the incantation for the reverse entropy spell.

 

It wasn’t working. By the time she neared the end of the spell she was screaming in Sumerian.

 

“You know I can take whatever I want right little Rey?” Bala spoke softly, almost as if he was in her ear. But Rey couldn’t see him, he’d been sure to block the window and shut the garage door. The lights were off.

 

Rey started the summoning spell she’d bonded Ben with, praying it would bring him or he’d hear her, or something.

 

“You still want to kill me?” Bala asked, stepping into view. He was wearing black boxers and a ridiculous Chucky style hockey mask. Rey’s stomach turned, and she nearly threw up right there but her whole body just froze, locked up in fear.

 

“A creature in a mask, how original,” Rey spit. Her words surprised them both, and Bala only chuckled. He was hard, and Rey’s fear and defiance only made him harder.

 

He was touching himself through his boxers, and Rey squeezed her eyes shut, she didn’t want to see any of this. Instead she thought of Ben and his constant teasing.

 

She thought of the way he frowned at his book in the summer sun, sitting atop cars like a little kid, with his legs all folded up beneath him. She thought of him yelling insults at lizards who failed to successfully participate in his invisibility spell, that took him three weeks.

 

She thought of him holding her in the shower while she cried, or when she’d hit him for spending so much time away when she’d needed him. He’d held her then too, and spent the night leaning against her bed.

 

“Little Rey, I’ve been waiting for this,” He cooed. She could tell he was much, much closer to her than she’d ever let him get. Panic was rushing through her veins, so she squeezed her eyes tighter and prayed for Kylo, for Ben, for whichever, to come get her, or take her away, or something.

 

“So have I,” His voice was so deep that she could feel it deep in her chest. He sounded like charred wood and Hellfire. What made Rey jump, and turn her head was the sharp roar, and menacing growl in agreeance.

 

A jaguar, looking absolutely feral, stepped out from behind Kylo. Its eyes were as black as Ren’s, and the magic coming off both creatures, was visible.

 

Smoke billowed from his hands, and the cat’s paws as they both stalked closer.

 

Bala was white as a sheet, he ripped off his mask and took several steps back.

 

“You get the girl, Master, I want the pervert,” the jaguar purred.

 

Rey gaped, it had an accent, a deep Caribbean sounding one, which came out in a purr. She flashed pearly white teeth at Bala, who was scrambling backward in panic.

 

It was too late though, Kylo was muttering something under his breath, eyes practically glowing. He advanced on Bala Tik, stopping to stand next to Rey’s head.

 

She craned her neck to look at him, his whole body was tense, and the anger radiating off him made her want to run.

 

She looked away, deciding to see if Bala had died from fear alone.

 

What a mistake that had been.

 

His skin was peeling off him like butter running down a steak, his mouth was open, as if to scream, but instead Rey could see blood bubbling up out of his throat. His eyes, ears, and nose were bleeding as well. Bala twitched, thrashing against the pain, trying to cling to life, and then Ren laughed.

 

It was not the light hearted chuckles Rey had coaxed out of him in the past two months, or the rough rasping giggles that would come out by mistake when she made a fool of herself.

 

This was crazed, hysterical laughter, completely uncontrolled, untamed, and unhinged. And Bala popped like he’d swallowed a grenade. Everything was covered in blood, The walls, the ceiling, the floor, Rey, Ren, the big cat.

 

The three of them stood frozen in time for a minute. Rey blinked, blood stung her eyes, she had inhaled some of it, the taste of it was unmistakable on her tongue.

 

“Master Ren, the girl?” The jaguar purred. That snapped him out of it.

 

“Little one, are you hurt?” He croaked, unmoving.

 

Rey was quiet for several seconds, maybe more, she had no idea how long it took her to whisper a yes, but she must have because Ren snapped his fingers and Rey was in a familiar marble bathroom, with an absolutely beautiful ebony skinned woman.

 

“Be still, I’m going to draw you a healing bath,” She said, helping Rey into the bath. She snapped her fingers, and Rey laid naked in the empty tub.

 

“Movan…” she whispered, in awe.

 

“You’ve heard of me?” Movan asked, wrapping a white bathrobe around herself. Rey could only nod, as Movan started the tap and immediately began enchanting the water. When the bath was full, Rey began drifting off to sleep.

 

Movan smiled wanly down at the slumbering girl. Kylo had pulled them away from an Underworld Dragon for her _. Curious_.


	7. The trouble with Witches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How about some fluff FINALLY

“I wonder Master, if you have lost your way,” Movan growled. They were stalking each other, circling around one another. Movan, 10 times the natural predator compared to Kylo, has her cornered despite their shifting positions.

 

He knows how tall he is. He knows who’s better at magic, and he knows that the power he displayed in Plutts garage is something nobody knew he was capable of.

 

“Are you really going to challenge me now Movan Ren, after what you’ve seen?” He was snarling and baring his teeth, just as much the untamed animal as she.

She took a quick step back once she was no longer against a wall, submitting. Kylo growled as he shoved past her, ripping the door open.

 

Rey was lying in a massive four poster, dramatically black, bed, asleep.

 

All he could do was slump over in the red chaise lounge set next to the walk-in closet.

 

It had taken him 30 minutes just to move once Rey and Movan were out of the garage. The cleaning charm he used, he’d messed up several times despite learning it in when he was nine.

 

Eventually, perhaps an hour or two later, he’d managed to get the makeshift office looking like it had before Bala had turned it into… _whatever the fuck that was_.

 

Kylo felt like he was several hours behind himself, like jet lag but in a much more alternate dimensions and messed up timelines sort of way.

 

He still couldn’t believe that Rey had managed to pull him out of a spell that took four Knights, each one nearly drained of their power. They weren’t really in the Underworld with that Dragon, it had been ridiculously complicated illusion magic.

 

His freight train of thoughts was halted by the sound of rustling sheets, and a tired groan.

 

“Ben?”

 

“Rey…” He uncurled himself and stood at the foot of her bed.

 

It was just like when he’d first laid eyes on her. Rey, gripping the sheets tightly to her chest, eyes wild, hair rumpled. Only then she’d looked shocked, now she looked afraid.

 

“Wh-what happened? Did I… did he touch me?” She lifted the sheets, checking herself over. Movan had put her in a lush black robe, her hair was down out of its buns.

 

“No Rey, I don’t think so…” he was panicking. Movan didn’t even tell me if you were hurt, “No Rey, I don’t think so…” he was taking fast deep breaths, but it was the look in his eyes that made Rey feel uncertain. He looked like a caged animal. Eyes darting everywhere, slightly hunched over, as if ready to pounce.

 

“I think he… I think he touched me,” Rey whimpered, her face crumbling. Tears didn’t rush down her face, she didn’t sob, she just looked at Ben like he’d let it happen.

 

So Ben screamed. The caged animal was released onto the posts of the beds. He threw a punch, sending it flying into the wall, but that wasn’t enough, he went after the lamp on the bedside table, the chaise lounge he’d crammed himself into, the horrid red drapes, the dresser drawers were ripped out and smashed. Rey locked the door with a turn of her hand, and slipped beneath the covers.

 

She held them over her head and laid perfectly still like she’d learned at the foster home before Unkar.

 

The more Ben yelled, the more her bottom lip quivered, then eventually, she broke and cried.

 

It wasn’t until she could hear Ben panting, and felt the bed dip a bit that she poked her head out and sniffled.

 

He was breathing heavily, like a horse in its last moments, his eyes wide and crazed, but he had his head bowed and he was on his knees, like he was saying a bedtime prayer.

 

Rey reached out for his hands. They were bloodied from his assault on the room, which was in absolute disarray.

 

“Come here Ben,” she mumbled, tugging at his hands. He came up, head bowed, and curled up next to her on the bed.

 

Rey closed her eyes and thought of all the good things they’d shared, all the happy fond memories.

 

“Sometimes, I don’t even need a spell, I don’t have to access magic with an incantation, I can just facilitate it,” Rey whispered, as if telling him a secret. His eyes were squeezed shut, like he was holding back tears.

 

Rey smiled softly at him, “you are my protector, and I your healer,”

 

Bens eyes snapped open, she sounded 10 years older, lost in thought. But he didn’t get the chance to study her face while she spoke those words to him because his hands were healed.

 

He ripped them from Rey’s grip in shock, “Rey, I…”

 

She had such a fond smile on her face, Ben was silenced when he looked up. This kind of magic was beyond even him. He’d only seen Snoke himself, and Luke once, pull off a spell in such a way.

 

And then she pulled him to her. Like a child would crush a teddy bear to their chest, Rey crushed a six foot two, 180 pound demon, and held him there.

 

“Don’t go anywhere Ben, I don’t want to be alone,”

 

So Ben extricated himself carefully, slowly, and tried to stop smiling.

 

“Let me get comfortable little one, you’re going to choke me out,”

 

He shyly climbed under the covers with her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

 

“Have you found anything on our bond?” Rey asked, picking at the hem of the comforter.

 

“No, I have no idea where you found it,” he mused, turning on the tv across the room with a wave of his hand. The local news was on and Rey feigned interest to buy herself some time.

 

“Am I really that bad?” She asked after a few minutes.

 

Ben shifted, turning himself to her and watching the top of her head, “no,” he said softly.

 

Rey looked up, an unsure smile twisting the corner of her mouth.

 

“It’s… Inconvenient isn’t it?”

 

“It’s dangerous Rey, I’m still not sure how it works and we could end up putting each other in situations we can’t handle,”

 

Rey knew he meant situations _she_ couldn’t handle, but she nodded anyway and turned back to the tv.

 

After a minute, Ben turned back too, sighing softly. He gave her arm a small squeeze

 

**Kylo**

 

He was overthinking everything. Being this close to Rey, under the sheets, it was making him jittery and nervous. There was a pure, endearing innocence to Rey, despite what she had been through, and yet, sitting next to her like this, Ren worried he was the one that was going to ruin her.

 

She didn’t want him to get rid of their bond, she didn’t want him to leave, but there was no way he could stay. They shouldn’t even be here right now. If Hux knew, **_if Snoke knew_** , they’d be dead, or worse.

 

He had to get her out of here and away from him.


	8. The Hermit

Rey woke up in her own bed, curled up tightly around someone abnormally warm. _Demons_ she grumbled to herself, _always hot blooded._

 

 _Demons?!_ Rey wriggled her numb arm out from under Ben’s head, then scooted away from him as quickly as she dared. It’s not that she doesn’t want to be close to him…

 

God _dammit_ , she really wanted to be close to him, but Ben kept arms distance strictly enforced unless she was crying, or other extenuating circumstances, and Rey wasn’t about to mess that up.

 

Maybe it was because no one ever looked out for her, or maybe it was because Ben was _different_ , or maybe Rey could go on forever overthinking all the reasons she preferred the company of a demon over anyone else in the world, but she stopped herself.

 

Rey crawled out of bed and dressed for the day. Except her coveralls were gone, so she put on the only thing she could think to do any sort of work in, a pair of denim shorts and a tank top.

 

It was a million degrees out already, despite the sun barely rising. She left Ben to sleep, and crept down the stairs to Plutt’s office.

 

Despite what happened a few days ago, everything was in order, as if it hadn’t happened at all. Rey could smell the rosewater Ben had used for the cleaning charm still. Plutt had clearly been through here, _where the fuck did he think I went?_

 

Ask and ye shall receive. Unkar himself opened the garage door right as she finished her troubling thought.

 

“Done running off with my mechanic girl?” He slurred. _Great, drunk and it’s only 7 am._

 

“Bala Tik tried to rape me. He paid for his mistake with his life,” Rey growled, grabbing the 3 foot torque wrench off the counter. She used it to point at Plutt accusingly, teeth barred, ready for a fight.

 

Plutt laughed, a full on albeit drunk, belly laugh, “Bala always was a fucking idiot. I told him to leave you alone…”

 

Rey nearly dropped the wrench. It fell to her side lamely, and her whole body relaxed, dumbfounded.

 

“Better him than me, that idiot had it in bad with the First Order, they’ll be thrilled to know I killed him off,”

 

Rey was gaping now, _what the fuck did he take?_

 

“Day off Rey-girl, go to the mall or whatever it is you kids do these days” Plutt said with an honest to gods smile.

 

Rey wasn’t dumbfounded enough to question that, she muttered a thanks and ran back up to her room.

 

“Ben I think you broke Unkar!” She yelped, jumping on his sleeping form. Ben growled and rolled over onto his stomach

“Fuck Rey, it’s too early for this shit…” he grumbled, trying to fall back asleep.

 

“Get up Ben! I have the day off!!” she was yelling and then whispering in his ear “Whatever you fucked up is the best thing that’s ever happened to me”

 

“Rey please give me another half hour…” Ben grumbled again, rolling over flat on his back. That was a mistake because now Rey was sitting on his stomach with her legs crossed, pretending to meditate.

 

“Maybe if I focus enough I can make you listen to me,” Rey smarted.

 

Ben finally laughed, “probably not,”

 

“Then I’ll just have to tickle you,” Rey growled, pouncing on him like a fox in the snow. She tried his armpits and got nothing, then tried his neck, he only twitched.

 

She grinned wickedly and scooted down his lap until she was straddling him. Rey ignored the fact she was in Ben’s lap as well as Ben ignored that Rey was in his lap.

 

He was sitting up before Rey could even reach for his sides, he let out a maniacal laugh that sounded a lot like a growl, and turned them over, pinning Rey down onto the bed.

 

“Two can play at that game little one,” he teased.

 

The shit eating smile that covered his face was wiped clean when he looked down at Rey. She was trembling, and she looked scared despite herself.

 

“Shit,” he stood up quickly, running a hand through his bed-tangled hair, “sorry I.. I’m”

 

“It’s okay.” She quickly interrupted, standing in front of him. She kept her hands firmly at her side, “make it up to me and get a car over here. It’s the Las Vegas Car Show today, and we’re going,”

 

Ben sighed deeply, trying to ignore how forced the excitement in Rey’s voice sounded.

 

“Let’s make a detour first, I have an idea…” he tried, feeling guilty. She visibly relaxed, looking up at him with a genuine smile and nodding enthusiastically.

 

* * *

 

After 3 miles Rey was sweaty, dusty, and honestly a bit pissed off. Ben had decided they should get away from the house before they called for a car.

 

“Ben,” Rey huffed out, she stomped her foot and planted her hands on her hips, “I am not going any further,”

 

He was on the phone, as he had been for he past two miles, arguing about Satan only knows what, Ben only paused in his step to turn and face her. He pointed to the phone and continued his arguing, gesturing with a nod of his head to keep going.

 

Ben didn’t show any sign of stopping so Rey was dragged along for another mile before he finally got off the phone. They’d made it into town, and were walking through the pristine streets of suburbia. Modern homes were sprinkled in with grand craftsman style ones.

 

Rey was watching a dog in a massive bay window when Ben stopped, and so she walked right into his back.

 

“Ouch, jeez, what have you been eating, you’re like a brick wall,” Rey grumbled. Ben was still, and quiet.

 

Rey gave the back of his head a confused look, and then shuffled around him to see what he was looking at.

 

Across the street was a four story colonial inspired mansion, with a massive iron gate. Closer scrutiny revealed how run-down the place was. The gate hung limply from the bolts on the crumbling stone wall. The house itself  looked like it was falling apart, and for good reason.

 

The place was scorched, and looked like it had recently been aflame.

 

“Ben where are we?” she whispered, wrapping a warm hand around his clenched fist. He was so tense and rigid, Rey was surprised she hadn’t bounced off him earlier.

 

“Uncle Luke’s…” he whispered, more to himself than her. Rey pulled on his hand, trying to get him to relax or move, or do something other than stare.

 

“Let’s just go, we don’t have to be here,” Rey tried.

 

“No, this is why we walked, the car is in there,” and Ben stepped into traffic.

 

The street wasn’t busy but a car narrowly missed Ben, and honked at Rey accusingly.

 

“Jesus Ben, you’re not an actual brick wall!” she chastised, tugging him through the other lane as fast as she could.

 

He ignored her, looking a million miles away, and swung the iron gate ajar with a wave of his hand.

 

The minute the two of them where on the other side, Kylo Ren took over. His eyes were pitch black and expressionless, his lips set in a hard line, horns smoking with an unsettling magic.

 

Rey shivered, unsure of what to do with his reaction.

 

Kylo was a great many things, quiet was not really one of them. So Rey followed closely behind him as they bypassed the main house for the backyard, which revealed a nasty dried out pool, a back house, an empty chicken coop, garage, barn, and overgrown garden.

 

Kylo moved like a phantom, zeroed in on the back house. He hadn’t been here in nearly 6 years yet, it was as if he’d been gone for a century.

 

Luke’s well kept gardens and grounds were overgrown, dilapidated, and in a state Luke would be appalled by.

 

Kylo could see the kids still running around, sneaking behind the barn to practice magic, pushing each other into the pool until Luke put up the fence that’s now on the ground.

 

“He never let us use magic… Or rather, he never let me use magic. He told us we had to earn it. That we were given a gift as Witches, and to squander it was a disgrace,” Ren realized distantly that he was talking to Rey, but most of what he was saying just fell out of his mouth. He rubbed his wrists, remembering the enchanted bracelets that had singed him every time he dared try a spell.

 

They stopped in front of the back house, or the “cabin” as Luke had called it. Ben had lived back here with a couple other wayward teenagers. Kept separate from the rest of the little kids Luke had tugging at his robes all day.

 

Rey was gripping his hand again, prying open his clenched fist and interlacing their fingers.

 

“You didn’t deserve any  of this…” Rey whispered, sounding distant. Kylo stored what she’d said for later. Emboldened by her hand in his, he made his way inside.

 

The backhouse was the size of the main house at Plutt’s junkyard. Bigger actually. The living room, den, and kitchen, as well as a couple bathrooms, a laundry room, and some storage closet took up the first floor. The second and third floors were bedrooms, 3 each, and attached bathrooms.

 

They made their way to the fourth floor which was really just a loft sized attic. The door at the top of the stairs had a piece of paper taped to it. It was faded and had been crumpled and put back up a couple times. It read **BEN** and was covered in little doodles.

 

Ren opened the locked door with a swift low kick.

 

Inside, the roof was caved into the middle of the room. Rey’s hand tightened around Kylo’s. The walls were scorched, posters half melting, half burned off, picture frames with glass puddles on the floor. They squeezed into the other half of the room past some massive support beams and debris. A dresser and a bed, both stripped bare.

 

Kylo stared, gripping Rey’s hand.

 

“I hated this place,”

 

“I know. Let’s get out of here Ben, it’s not safe,”

 

He glanced down at her, brown eyes shining down.

 

“None of this is safe little one. Don’t you know how dangerous I am?” He asked, sounding far away.

 

“You’re my protector… my guardian demon,” Rey spoke softly and watched his eyes.

 

They were swimming with emotion. Pain, fear, anger, loneliness, longing, concern.

 

“I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me,” she tells him confidently, breaking eye contact to wearily watch the ground. The floor creaked and groaned beneath them.

 

In the center of the collapsed ceiling bits, they’d pierced the floor, and revealed the room below.

 

“Let’s just get out of here okay?”

 

He let her lead him all the way back down and out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow long time no post.  
> Sorry folks, life has been INSAneee so now things should start to get back in order. I hope.  
> <3


	9. The Fall Of Ben

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY CRAP REPOSTING BECAUSE I SOMEHOW LEFT OUT A PARAGRAPH???????  
> only me I swear. Sorry.  
> If you already read, the paragraph is added to the last scene.

As if broken from a spell, Kylo shook himself off.

 

“I did that to the roof you know…” He muttered, staring up at the building.

 

Rey was standing next to him, watching his face.

 

Here in the summer sun, you could see just how young Ben was, and just how young he had been before. He watched the ground like he was seeing ghosts, following invisible children racing past the pool, up the oak tree by the barn.

 

“Ben, why are we here?” Rey asked, watching his gaze move across the yard.

 

The fire damage to the main house was much worse from the back, revealing the innards of the house like it’d been skinned.

 

“We’re here for Lukes car, he left it to me, after all this…” he was staring down at the empty pool, as if it were reflecting his face back up at him.

 

Suddenly, he straightened up, to his full height, rolling his shoulders back with a dejected sigh.

 

“Let’s just get it and get out of here,” and he smiled lopsidedly down at Rey, offering her his hand. Rey nodded resolutely and took it, smiling a little brighter than him but not by much.

 

Ren never thought he would come back to this place. All the destruction, muted and yet amplified with age, made him feel out of control again.

 

Luke had “rescued” him from The Knights of Ren when they were just a bunch of kids messing around at the Academy. When his uncle had them all expelled, Kylo thought he’d hit rock bottom. Then a couple years later he ran into them again, as teenagers, and they were going to a new school.

 

“Luke thought… I guess he thought I would do exactly what I did. The only thing was he was scared, weak… arrogant,” He was ranting, and out loud now.

 

Rey gripped his hand tighter as they neared the barn, entrapped by the dark sound in his voice.

 

“Let me show you something Rey,” He murmured, leaning down to be closer to her ear. Rey shivered, and nodded once they stopped in front of the barn.

 

“Hand out toward the lock, palm down,” Rey obliged, he mimicked her, standing right behind her. Rey felt every spot where her back met his chest and abdomen.

 

“Cross your third over your index finger and turn in that direction,” they did it together, “uncross your fingers then the other way, and once your palm is level cross your third under your fourth and turn the other way until your palm is flat up”

 

Rey followed the chocolatey sound of his voice, focusing on the way her hand moved instead of how his words made her feel.

 

“Good little one, now. Palm up as you cross your fourth over your fifth. Good, follow that fourth finger,” Rey nodded and held her palm up the way he’d demonstrated.

 

“Now you’re ready to pop the lock, just flick your pinky finger out from your fourth,”

 

Rey did as he told her, and the padlock that held the barn door locked popped open with a satisfying click.

 

Rey shrieked and pounced on Ren, jumping onto him like a spider monkey. She wrapped all her limbs around him in a massive bear hug. He caught her around the waist and squeezed her against him, laughing into her shoulder while she snuggled down into his hair.

 

Looking back at it, Rey nor Ren would say that their reaction was appropriate to what had just happened. Rey got a first-year spell right on her first try, but here they were embracing like two people who just won the lottery.

 

They were both laughing, Ben softly and to himself, and Rey, loudly and at the universe.

 

After a few sweet moments, Kylo let her go, and put her down with great care.

 

“Want to see what you unlocked little one?” he grinned.

 

Rey was at the door in a heartbeat, and after a bit of struggling she managed to get the door to slide open.

 

It did so with much protest and dramatic exclamations. What was sitting inside was a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera in a lovely, but dusty, cherry red.

 

There were white racing stripes across the front and the liner at the top of the wind shield said “Red Five” in matching white.

 

Rey nearly tackled Ben again. Instead she tackled the car, pulling at the driver side door handle.

 

“Pop the hood! Pop the hood, let me in let me in!!” Rey cried, unable to wipe the smile off her face.

 

Ren rolled his eyes and grabbed the keys from off the hook on the wall and tossed them to her.

 

She caught them with ease, and a gleeful little wave. Then she unlocked the car and ripped open the door.

 

Surprisingly enough the car roared to life after Rey turned the key a couple times.

 

She was ecstatic and her energy radiated to Ben making him smile fondly as she revved the engine.

 

“Wanna go for a ride little one?” he offered. Rey yelped a “yes” and went around to the passenger side as he pushed off the wall.

 

Here were two people who were friends, in an odd couple kind of way, who weren’t afraid to be close to each other, but were afraid of how they felt.

 

The funny thing was Rey knew it, Ben knew it. There were too many complications, too much baggage, one of them thought it would never happen, the other thought it would be a nightmare if it did.

 

Here they were though, in an original ’72 Pantera of all things, going for a joy ride.

 

They drove until it was dark, through town, and out into the desert. The night sky was a sea of stars that hypnotized Rey.

 

They stopped at a road sign that said they were now leaving _The Outer Rim._

 

Rey got out of the car, and shivered at the night’s chill. She sat on the hood and toed the dirt, feeling it shift as Ben stepped out to join her.

 

“Rey…”

 

“Even though Plutt’s is far from the city, you can never see this many stars…”

 

Ben sat next to her, shoulders bumping lightly, hips touching. Their necks craned back to watch the sky.

 

“I never knew there were this many stars in the galaxy,” she whispered.

 

* * *

 

What Ben had wanted to say would never be realized. They stared at the sky, Rey eventually laid back on the warm hood, and after an hour she was asleep.

 

Ben had roused her enough to get her back in the car and then they’d gone back to the yard. He didn’t even have to carry her to her room, she shuffled up on her own albeit slowly.

 

Then he’d put the car in the back of the lot where Rey’s little alcove had been, and covered it with a tarp. Luke’s things, despite being left to him, had no place in his possession.

 

**REY**

 

As Rey slept, she dreamt; which was not uncommon except that she hadn’t ever had a dream like this before.

 

“Come here,” a gravely voice called her, she obeyed. Dressed in a white dress, floating through the starry night.

 

“Listen,” the voice added, she obeyed. Screaming and crying, banging on metal, the sounds of torment.

 

“Ben belongs here. To me. Much like you do. Young Rey, this is your destiny,” the disembodied voice finished, and the screaming grew unbearably loud. All the sounds around her did. Rattling chains, the scrape of a knife against stone, _every sound ever used in a horror movie,_ Rey managed to think before waking.

 

She sat up like a vampire in a coffin, reaching out for something and with a startled gasp.

 

“Ben?”

 

Rey took a minute to glance around the room before deciding she was too tired to worry about a silly dream.

 

She was out in a matter of minutes.

 

**BEN**

 

After leaving the car, Ren returned to the Starkiller mansion. His first clue that something was up should have been the unnerving presence of General Hux. The sniveling ginger was stomping about the mansion like a begrudged king in his castle. He sneered at Kylo when they passed each other, as if to say _Just you wait._

 

Ben did not have to wait at all. He stepped into the library in search of a text on spell breaking he’d seen a week prior, only to be forced to his knees by Supreme Leader Snoke.

 

“Kylo Ren, you’ve been lying to me,” he growled. Ben gripped at the floor, as if he could just crawl through it and into the basement.

 

“Supreme Leader…” He began, but a cold hand snapped his face aside and shut him up. The forced of Snoke’s blow stung his cheek and was sure to leave a bruise.

 

“Did you really think you could lie to me boy?!” the older man bellowed.

 

Ren began to choke, the unmistakable taste of blood filling his throat. He tried to shake his head and even made an attempt to choke out a reply.

 

“You’ve been seen with a girl, one who can do magic. A witch Kylo Ren. A bloody witch!”

 

“Master…”

 

“The mighty Kylo Ren. When I found you... I saw what all masters live to see. Raw, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special. The potential of your bloodline. A new breed of Demon. Now I fear... I was mistaken,”

 

“I’ve given everything I have to you,”

 

“Look at me,” Ben had no choice, blood dripping from his mouth, sweat falling down his face, a terrible grimace turning him into the visage of the demon he is.  He could tell that Snoke forced his eyes to their human look, deep brown, and fatally expressive, “Yes, there it is. You have too much of your father's heart in you, young Solo”

 

 **“Kill Han Solo and bring me the girl!”** Snoke growled, standing from his chair, and smacking the big oak desk aside with the back of his hand. Ren was released, and he had only a second to catch his breath before he found himself  on his hands and knees outside of SOLO & SON.

 

It was day, the sun was beating down from directly above, but the wind was howling and storm clouds were making quick work of the sunshine.

 

Rey’s laughter made Ben stand. She was underneath a car on a lift, looking impossibly tiny next to Chewie.

 

“Ben!” Han bellowed, stepping between the pair with a wrench in on hand, and Boba’s collar in the other. The dog was barking like a deranged animal, begging to be let go.

 

Ben took a steadying breath, and rolled his shoulders, stepping through the driveway, surrounded by scrapped cars. He looked formidable at the end of the corridor of junk.

 

Rey had dropped her things to go greet Ben, but Chewie had stopped her, a large hand gipping her shoulder firmly.

 

“Han Solo. I've been waiting for this day for a long time,”

 

“Put away your horns, I know what you are,” Ben obeyed, replacing black eyes with brown.

 

“What do you think you'll see if I do?”

 

“The face of my son,”

 

“Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him,”

 

“That's what Snoke wants you to believe but it's not true. My son is alive, he stands before me now,”

 

“That dog of yours seems to disagree,” Ben challenged, stepping forward.

 

Han shot the dog a command, and it scampered off to the office, only to resume it’s incessant barking.

 

“Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you… you know it's true,” Han continued when Ben did not. Both of their faces fell as they realized the truth.

 

“It's too late,” Ben whispered, but everyone could feel what he was saying.

 

“No it's not. Leave here with me. Come home. We miss you,” Han stepped aside and gestured to Rey and Chewie with is now empty hand.

 

“I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain” Ben whispered again. Rey was already crying. The way he was looking at her instead of Han was clawing at her guts. She smiled weakly to affirm what Han had said.

 

“I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?” Ben’s voice was breaking, the pain in his features and his words were undeniable.

 

Han had been slowly moving toward Ben, and Ben toward Han, and now they were standing before each other, an arm’s length apart.

 

“Thank you,” Ren whispered, eyes flashing black, horns reappearing. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, and shoved his hand up, under Han’s ribs, and in, grasping his still beating heart in black claws.

 

Han’s eyes widened; Rey screamed. Chewie grabbed her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and pulling a gun from the toolkit next to them. He shot blindly, and landed a lucky shot in Ren’s side.

 

In his haste to stop Kylo, Chewie let Rey loose enough to throw a spell. It was all rage and instinct, an attempt to protect both men, but it was too late. Screaming, her hand extended out like a blade, Rey sliced up, ripping open Ren’s face from neck to nose. Blood sprayed across Han, who’s work shirt was already becoming a deep crimson.

 

Just as Boba broke out of the office, set to kill, Han’s hand came to rest against his son’s cheek and Ben ripped his father’s heart out.

 

He was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a corpse, a whining dog, a vindictive partner, and his disbelieving friend.


	10. Demons

The 24 hours surrounding this event, neither Rey nor Ren would ever forget. Though Rey wasn’t present in the formation of the villain known as Kylo Ren, she had been instrumental in the fall of one young Ben Solo, a boy who had been reinforced with an armor that had never meant to be pierced.

 

But young Rey had peeled away the week and rotting metal that made up Ben’s armor, and left him vulnerable to the dark forces that had incepted Kylo. And just when the last layer of protection had been removed, Snoke had struck, puppeteering the demise of Han Solo, and successfully killing Ben Solo.

 

The man that returned to Supreme Leader Snoke was not Ben Solo, but Kylo Ren, fully realized.

 

And the girl left with a body instead of her friend was not the young Rey from not a half hour before. She was Justice, Vengeance, and Rage, rolled into one powerful teenage witch.

 

By the time she started school again as a high school junior, she had met Leia Skywalker-Organa Solo, High Priestess of the Rebel coven and Nevada state Senator. She had also been reintroduced to Poe Dameron, warlock, and his warlock boyfriend Finn Storm. They’d been quite sheepish about the entire affair, but it turned out that a handful of the kids Poe was friends with were actually part of the coven as well.

 

Rey had also been told the tale of old Luke Skywalker, who’d gone AWOL after the destruction of his home and academy. Poe had been a witness to the entire affair, having been in the year below Ben.

 

She’d seen Luke’s familiar, Artoo, a petrified blue heeler, kept at the Rebel’s headquarters in a that looked older than any dog should be. Apparently Luke had frozen the poor pup when he’d left, with a spell that couldn’t be broken by any other warlock or witch to ensure his location remained secret.

 

However the 24 hours she’d never forget were not memorable because of these things. No. Rey had gone home after some serious coaxing from Chewie and a devastated Leia, with Boba as her new charge, and she’d killed Unkar Plutt.

 

Whatever charm Kylo had put on him before they’d left that day had worn off, and the oversized slug was livid. He’d made the fatal mistake of raising a hand against Rey, and she’d only laughed, and snapped her fingers, breaking his neck.

 

The power Rey had found in her rage was what she’d never forget. She realized quickly that she was falling down the same path Ren had just taken right before her eyes.

 

Ren, her friend, her guardian. Who’d severed their bond with an unspeakable act, had been her friend not the day before. She’d seen a boy become a man by bloodshed.

 

Senator Organa swiftly covered his death up as an accident, and Plutt’s property was left to Rey. The matter of her custody fell unto the state, which Leia quickly took control of, fostering Rey until she’s of age.

 

Hans funeral was held soon after, and it was quite the affair. Cops and culprits wept during Chewie’s eulogy, something Han would have _hated_ Leia insisted. Even Boba whimpered and whined through the entire thing, adding to the heartbreak.  He’d been given a chilling 21 gun salute for his service not only on the police force but the United States Air Force as well. The brass was given to a stern-faced Leia, who’d been nothing but solemn since they’d dressed Han in his uniform.

 

The entire coven had turned out for the funeral as well, their normal attire blending into the rest of the mourners, dressed in black. There had been great controversy over the High Priestess marrying a mortal, and it had taken death for Han to earn the Rebel coven’s respect.

 

When Rey had seen Han in his military uniform, she sat with Leia, and tried to comfort the weeping widow. Leia had explained the whole situation and how it had nearly ruined their marriage. She also confessed to Rey that Ben had been her fault.

 

“We thought sending him to learn with other witches would make him feel  more included, but oh Rey, children can be so cruel. And Luke? He had no idea what he was doing with Ben or what he would be capable of. It was believed that witches and mortals couldn’t have children, nobody even knew if he’d be able to do magic…” The whole confession turned into a bit of a blubbering rant, but Rey sat through it best she could, and tried to comfort Leia.

 

After the funeral Rey stayed with Leia in the family home. It was a massive Victorian mansion that reminded Rey of cheesy vampire movies.

 

She’d met C3-PO, Leia’s grandfather’s familiar. Nobody knew why the golden haired Patas Monkey was still alive or why he spoke several different languages, but a 60(ish) year old talking primate was not the weirdest thing Rey had ever seen. He putzed around like a stuffy old butler, straightening pillows, dusting shelved, and nagging everyone he could.

 

After a month, Leia had busied herself with coven and State matters that Rey felt like a ghost. It didn’t take long to move back to ~~Plutt’s~~ her house.

 

Despite all the High Priestess’ protesting, Rey was adamant about remaining in Plutt’s house. She used the money he’d manage to save up to tear down and rebuild the garage, adding a real lift, then remodel the main house. Most of it was cosmetic, and Finn, Poe, and Chewie were all thrilled to help.

 

Chewie had spent a month at home with his wife Malla and his son whom he referred to as Lumpy. It had taken a while for Rey and Boba to get him out of  the house but when they did it became clear that he needed to stay busy so Rey offered him her garage. After much debate and deliberation, the Millennium Falcon and the rest of the Solo & Son fleet was moved to Rey’s. They renamed it in Han’s Automotive in memorial.

 

The old shop was torn down to the dirt and put up for sale to get the new shop up and running.

 

**Kylo**

Snoke was hardly without mercy. Killing Han Solo had not been enough. Kylo Ren was given strict instructions to **_bring the girl with him._**

So, to atone, Kylo was sent to Hell, to **_burn_**.

 

Snokes power here made him even more dangerous, and the torture he inflected upon Kylo as penance for his sins was unbearable. Days stretched into weeks and then months and then years.

 

From the fire a new man was born. Ben Solo was dead, and all that remained was Kylo Ren.

 

When the torture stopped the training began. Kylo was becoming an unstoppable force but her remained firmly beneath Snoke’s thumb.

 

**Rey**

_November_

 

“What are you doing for Thanksgiving break Rey?” Nic (a warlock) asked as they left math for lunch. He was teased for being Poe’s body double, except for the brightly dyed blue hair. He’d been called Baby Poe or BP ever since.

 

“I usually just watch some football and eat junk food…” Rey replied, sounding more unsure as she went.

 

“Well if you don’t have other plans you should come to the Feast. The High Priestess gets all worked up about Christopher Columbus, it’s amazing,”

 

“Thanks Nic, I’ll be sure to check it out,” She smiled and waved a little goodbye before they split to their respective lockers.

 

Having friends in her classes was awkward and odd, people who’d never noticed her before were suddenly calling her to eat with them or inviting her out to parties. It started with coven kids but as her popularity grew among them, it spread to normal students.

 

The attention was not entirely unwanted, but Rey was certainly unused to it.

 

When Ren had killed his father, he’d upturned the entirety of Rey’s world.

 

She was in a coven, she’d met people she’d never have met on her own, and her eyes had been opened to the double lives so many witches lead.

* * *

 

 

Leia did in fact get quite worked up about Christopher Columbus. So much so that she vowed to have the day dedicated to him changed to Indigenous People’s Day in the state of Nevada if it was the last thing she did.

 

Rey had come the day before, and stayed in the guest room overnight, helping Leia prepare the Feast.

 

“Put some socks on mistress Rey it’s freezing in here!” C3-PO barked at her when she’d come into the kitchen Wednesday morning. She marched back up the stairs obediently.

 

“You know PO, this is why nobody asks you anything, because you’re constantly telling them!” She’d joked after returning with socked feet.

 

“That’s their loss that mistress Rey, I’m very knowledgeable,” he’d retorted rather pompously. Rey smiled and scratched him between the ears, something he enjoyed but would never admit to. They were caught like this, C3-PO on the kitchen counter, Rey next to him, pouring over the cookbook Leia had put out.

 

“Look at you too, worse than two peas in a pod,” Leia had joked. She had an armful of groceries that Rey moved to help her put away, “don’t be silly, I’ve bookmarked the recipes I usually make, study up,” she’d said fondly.

 

A monkey, a teenage witch, and the High Priestest of the biggest coven in Nevada was a deadly mix in the kitchen. They’d made a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, a ham, and a pot roast as well as set the 20 foot formal dining table for 70 people, ensured everyone who was brining drinks, deserts, appetizers, and whatever else they’d like to bring were in fact brining something, and managed to clean the house; with the help of some magic of course.

 

The next day people began arriving by  1 o’clock, arms laden with food. The massive house filled with witches, warlocks, their familiars, and even some privy mortals. Chewie and his family had joined them, as did Boba, and much to Rey’s surprise, one of the school’s math teacher, who’d been cursed by her students, and then uncursed by a less than please Leia.

 

By the time dinner was served, Rey could hardly believe she’d ever complained about how empty the house was.

 

Dinner conversation started out normal. Poe and Finn sandwiched Rey between themselves, and explained that it was normal for adults to asks what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

 

Finn was sympathetic to her situation whereas Poe was a bit bewildered, but a few stern looks quickly kept him in check. Finn filled in as many blanks as he could, helping Rey get caught up with all the inner drama of the coven.

 

He explained who was here and who wasn’t and why, and explained just about everyone’s roll in the coven. Poe supplied the rest, proud to supplement what his boyfriend hadn’t yet learned.

 

Finn too had recently joined the coven, and Poe had naturally taken him under his wing.

 

However when the adults had finished thoroughly interrogating the younger folk, and the gossip had run stale, Leia began her speech. Her ranting was debated heatedly among some of the other coven members around her age, and even some of the younger students chimed in.

 

Eventually the whole thing devolved into watching the “mortal’s football game”  as Poe had called it, and soon after that people began the journey home.

 

Rey was the last to bade Leia goodbye after cleaning up the entire thing and ensuring leftovers had been properly divided up for her guests to take home at their church service the following night.

 

Her heart was full, and for the first time since Ben had died before her eyes, she slept soundly, without his face haunting her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck at updates don't I??? SORRY!


	11. Skywalker

Four years later

Poe was always complaining about Los Angeles. Rey, now 22, Finn, also 22, and Poe, 23, had taken big steps in the world, getting into USC, UCLA, and Occidental College respectively. They were Sophomores, and they  lived together in a shitty little apartment in La Brea. Poe was collapsed on the second-hand grey sofa, whining about the traffic and the noise and on and on and on.

 

This was one of the rare times all three students were together and Rey had quite enough of his complaining.

 

“There’s a guy in my physics class who looks like B-Kylo Ren,” she said firmly, washing a pot in the kitchen sink. She watched from the kitchen as Poe shot up from the couch, hurtling over the back to come stand next to her.

 

The two had become fast friends, a little more literally than the coven would have liked. Poe and Rey raced anything and everything they could in Nevada. They’d earned the title Flyboys.

 

Finn, who was wiping down the dining room table also came to stand by Rey’s side.

 

The two men exchanged a look and then started drying dishes, watching her in anticipation.

 

“LA is filled with Kylo Ren’s, makes me feel like I should be watching my back,” she muttered.

 

“I heard that there are 7 people on Earth right now that look just like you,” Finn added, rather lamely. Poe gave him a “what the fuck?” look.

 

“Are you okay?” Poe asked. Rey shot him a glare. Poe had no filter, and he knew damn well Rey hated being asked that question. It was Finn’s turn to shoot Poe The Look.

 

“It’s not a big deal?” Rey shrugged, hating to sound so unsure. When they were still at home, Rey “saw” Ben everywhere. Her friends had spent many hours trying to talk her down or console her. Now that they were in Los Angeles, the sightings has subsided.  

 

Poe nodded, and started putting away the dishes he’d dried. He knew Finn had a better shot at getting Rey to open up, so he shot a sharp look his boyfriends’ way before returning to the couch.

 

“Are you Rey? Okay?” Finn asked, putting his dried dishes away as well.

 

She dried the pot, thoroughly, before answering with a curt nod.

 

“Yeah,” she concluded. Finn gave her a little reassuring smile and a quick hug before finishing the kitchen table.

 

* * *

 

“Alright I’m off to this Mythology?” Rey grabbed her backpack from the back of her chair at the table. She was looking down at her phone, trying to remember when she’d chosen a mythology class for her GE requirement.

 

“Can I come? It sounds like a disaster,” Finn asked, plopping into Poe’s lap.

 

“Professor Sky Walker,” Rey muttered. Two heads snapped to where Rey was standing by the door, backpack slung over her shoulder.

 

“Skywalker?” Poe finally asked.

“No, no he’s… He’s German? His bio says he was born on a reservation in South Dakota,”

 

All three of them relaxed.

 

Half an hour later, Rey plopped down into her seat. The class was surprisingly small, only about 50 or so seats filled the room, but it was packed full. There were students crowding in the back, standing around awkwardly.

 

“You kids know the rules, if you’re not in this class, don’t try and add it. And if you’re on the waitlist, stand up front here so we can find you seats,” A grumbling voice filled the room as the door swung open.

 

Rey couldn’t see the professor as a sea of students started filing out, heads hung.

 

“Now I am Luke, and this is Mythology 200. Focusing on North American folklore. The Greek Mythology class is at 5:30 so yeah, you’ve missed it,” the disembodied voice went on. Rey’s view was starting to get better, and just as the last student stepped out of the way she shot out of her seat.

 

“Luke…” She whispered, disbelieving.

 

Before her was a ghost, a specter, a story witches told their children, a legend.

 

“Miss, please sit down so I can go over the syllabus,” Luke said cooly. His blue eyes were hardened, telling her to leave it for now.

 

And so Rey sat, agape, for an hour while Luke Skywalker talked about sasquatch and wendigos. He looked so much older than the pictures Leia had up in the house.

 

The man before her was almost unrecognizable to the demon hunter the High Priestess talked about. His blonde hair had turned grey, his posture was hunched over, and his beard made him look like even more decrepit.

 

Rey couldn’t help it, she thought of Ben Solo and the Knights of Ren. She thought of the burnt house and collapsed roof. Hero. Killer. Hunter. Teacher. Traitor. She had so many different versions of Luke made up in her head. Never had she thought he’d be a mythology professor in Los Angeles.

 

Once class ended Luke invited Rey into his office down the hall. They walked silently, side by side, Rey stared at the ground the whole way, and once she was in, she found his incense burner on the desk particularly interesting.   

 

“Master Skywalker…”

 

“Drop the class”

 

“Master Skywalker, I-I’m from the coven. The high- your sister….”

 

“How did you find me?”

 

“I didn’t. I’m a student here. Leia… she insisted we attend… she wants us to be successful,”

 

“Why are you in my class,” Luke bellowed, slamming his hands on the desk. He was standing on the opposite side of her, seething.

 

Rey looked up, took a deep breath and met his glare with her own, “The coven needs you. Leia needs you. There is no light left in Kylo Ren. He's only getting stronger. The First Order is aiming to turn us all. We need your help. We need the Order back. We need Luke Skywalker,”

 

“You don’t need Luke Skywalker,” he scoffed, and sat back in his chair, looking defeated.

 

“Did you hear what I just said? They’ve turned Ben, they turned some of your former students. They’re not slowing down. Leia sent us away. She thinks we don’t know any better but we scattered.”

 

“You think what? I'm gonna walk out with a wand and a spell and face down the whole First Order? What did you think was going to happen here? Do you think that I came... To the most unfindable place in the world for no reason at all? Go away. Drop the class,”

 

“You’re wasting your time,” she countered, “I know you’re here.”

 

“Who are you?”

 

“Leia… sent me.”

 

“She sent you? What’s special about you? Where are you from?” He growled.

 

Rey spotted a familiar set of spell books tucked into a shelf on her left. She moved over to them, running her fingers down the spines, “Nowhere”

 

“Nobody is from nowhere,”

 

“Jakku.”

 

Luke stifled a laugh, breaking the tension, “All right that is pretty much nowhere. What’s your name?”

 

“Rey.” She pulled a leather bound book out, reading the back cover. She was enraptured, and paid little attention to Luke, who was watching her skeptically. He could tell she was special.

 

“Why are you here, Rey from nowhere?”

 

“Leia sent me and some warlocks to school out here”

 

He came to stand in front of Rey, who was now flipping through the book, “Why are **_you_** here Rey,”

 

“There’s something inside of me, that’s always been there. I can feel it, just below the surface, and I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.” She looked up at him beseechingly, and told the truth before she could stop herself. Had he hexed her?

 

“You need a teacher,” Rey tensed, remembering the way Ben has muttered those words years ago with the same hint of disdain. She looked down at the book, now closed, “I can’t teach you. The Order will die with me. Get out of my office Rey. Don’t come back to my class,”

 

Dejected, Rey did as she was told. She went to rejoin the book with the set but paused. She met Luke’s faraway but angry stare, and nodded, tucking the book under her arm and stalking off.

 

When she got home, the boys were already in bed. She showered, trying to wash away all the tension and confusion for her time with Luke. He was nothing like anyone described him. Well, she just hated to admit that Kylo had been closer to the truth than Leia.

 

Rey went to bed and ignored the way her gut was telling her everything was about to change.

 

* * *

 

The next day Rey woke up to the smell of pancakes. Poe was in the kitchen, wearing a pair of boxers covered in hearts and an apron that said ‘Kiss Me I’m a Witch”

 

“Poe, what did I say about pants?” Rey chided, padding into the kitchen from her room. She wasn’t following her own rule, dressed in a massive shirt that was probably Finn’s and a pair of her own matching hear briefs. Finn had gotten the three of them matching underwear and despite Poe and Rey’s protests, all three of them wore them every so often.

 

“We’re matching, princess,” Poe commented as she poured herself coffee.

 

She shot him a glare over the lip of her mug, taking a sip.

 

“Stop flirting Poe. I’m off to class, you two behave! Love you Peanut” Finn called as he rushed out the door, dressed in a button-down and slacks.

 

“He looks like he should be the professor,” Rey quipped, Poe only laughed and handed her a plate of pancakes.

 

“How was class last night? Who was the mysterious professor Sky Walker?” he asked, serving himself a plate as Rey sat down to eat. She nearly choked.

 

“Uh. Just some weird orphaned German kid who grew up on the rez. He spent an hour on sasquatch,” Rey lied. She chided herself internally. Why the hell was she lying??

 

They finished their pancakes talking about traffic and Poe’s indecision on his major. It had become a **Thing** since they got to LA. Everyone knew Poe was going to end up a Senator like Leia, and most likely High Priest as well, but he was in denial.

 

Rey did the dishes while Poe got ready for his internship at the mayor’s office downtown. She threw on some clothes and headed out to class.

 

“Hey Rey, don’t forget you have to leave at noon if you’re going to make it to pick up Finn for his job interview,” Poe said as they walked out the door together.

 

“I’ll tell the prof… Mitika? Mitaka? Holy shit his first name is **_Dopheld,_** ” her quip had been completely derailed, “Shit I’m gonna be late… Bye flyboy!” She hollered she flew to her car.

 

“That girl… What the hell were we thinking?” Poe muttered.

 

Rey hopped into her 1987 Dodge Ramchager Finn called “The White Whale”. Rey had gotten it running before they left Nevada, and all three college students had been crammed in it for their trip out to LA.

 

She managed to park and get to class, 15 minutes late. The massive lecture hall should have made her lateness unnoticeable but the classroom was dead silent, and captivated by WWII footage? She wasn’t quite sure because the video was paused.

 

“Rey… Niima?” Professor Mitaka droned, sounding absolutely unamused.

 

“Sorry?” she offered, and took a seat.

 

The entire hour long class, Prof Mitaka watched Rey like a hawk. She didn’t even get to enchant her notebook to copy his lecture down. He reminded Rey of Kylo, notoriously dressed in black, and looking all too mischievous.

 

She wasn’t surprised when he called her down to his desk once class ended.

 

“Miss Niima, why were you late?” He asked, sounding bored.

 

“I uh, had some trouble finding the classroom,” Rey lied, fiddling with the hem of her grey hoodie.

 

Mitaka looked over the girl that stood in front of him. In class she appeared confident and almost flippant, but being reprimanded for her tardiness made her almost bashful.

 

He had seen this girl before, in a witches Hellscape. Rey, with her three odd buns, in ragged coveralls, screaming, and asking why?

 

As a lesser demon there was no reason to be poking around in people’s waking nightmares, but the half demon, half witch Kylo Ren was notorious, and Mitaka could not resist.

 

“I doubt that **_witch_** ,” he tested. To Rey’s credit she didn’t respond too outwardly. What would have been a rude comment to anyone, she had straightened her posture and glared at him, but Mitaka could see the trepidation in her stare.

 

“ ** _Demon,_** ” she countered, nostrils flaring. Mitaka smirked, and leaned back into his chair.

 

“Kylo Ren sends his regards,” he cooes, and then snaps his fingers, vanishing into a dramatic puff of smoke.

 

Rey feels like she can’t breathe, and it’s not the soot floating in the air. She barrels out of the classroom and across campus to the parking lot.

 

“Finn!” Rey practically screams into her phone once she’s safe in the truck. She’d dialed him somewhere around Bovard Auditorium.

 

“Do I call the cops??? Peanut what is going on??” Finn sounds panicked on the other end of the line.

 

“ ** _Professor_** **_Mitaka_** is a **_demon_** , he knows **_Ren_**.”

 

“Fuck,”

 

**Mitaka**

 

Dopheld paced in his apartment while the phone rang, anxious for the other end of the line to be picked up. 

 

A click, and then nothing, he took his chance, “Master Ren, I found someone who might be of interest to you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck so much y'all I had no idea where this story was going and now I can't back out and thank god I didn't!  
> Anyway I don't have a beta so sorry about all the typos throughout this story, they make me cringe too.


End file.
